Popular culture Books

Book SynopsisA specter is haunting contemporary television-the specter of creepiness. In our everyday lives, we try to avoid creepiness at every cost, shunning creepy people and recoiling in horror at the idea that we ourselves might be creeps. And yet when we sit down to watch TV, we are increasingly entranced by creepy characters. In this follow-up to Awkwardness and Why We Love Sociopaths, Adam Kotsko tries to account for the strange fascination of creepiness. In addition to surveying a wide range of contemporary examples-from Peep Show to Girls, from Orange is the New Black to Breaking Bad-Kotsko mines the television of his 90s childhood, marveling at the creepiness that seemed to be hiding in plain sight in shows like Full House and Family Matters. Using Freud as his guide through the treacherous territory of creepiness, Kotsko argues that we are fascinated by the creepy because in our own ways, we are all creeps.

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Book SynopsisAn intriguing study of a unique and unsettling cultural phenomenon in Victorian England. WINNER of the 2013 Katharine Briggs Award This book uses the nineteenth-century legend of Spring-Heeled Jack to analyse and challenge current notions of Victorian popular cultures. Starting as oral rumours, this supposedly supernatural entity moved from rural folklore to metropolitan press sensation, co-existing in literary and theatrical forms before finally degenerating into a nursery lore bogeyman to frighten children. A mercurial and unfixedcultural phenomenon, Spring-Heeled Jack found purchase in both older folkloric traditions and emerging forms of entertainment. Through this intriguing study of a unique and unsettling figure, Karl Bell complicates our appreciation of the differences, interactions and similarities between various types of popular culture between 1837 and 1904. The book draws upon a rich variety of primary source material including folklorist accounts, street ballads,several series of "penny dreadful" stories (and illustrations), journals, magazines, newspapers, comics, court accounts, autobiographies and published reminiscences. The Legend of Spring-Heeled Jack is impressively researched social history and provides a fascinating insight into Victorian cultures. It will appeal to anyone with an interest in nineteenth-century English social and cultural history, folklore or literature. Karl Bell is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Portsmouth.Trade ReviewA good example of the ways in which cultural history still has the potential to unlock meaning when applied to a particular sort of problem. * ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW *Embraces the sheer messiness and multivocal nature of popular culture and thus radically advances our understanding of the Victorians and their world. * AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW *A careful and thoughtful look at a moral panic become myth that well deserved its 2013 Katherine Brigg's award. ... All future writing will owe a debt to this book. ... In bottling this whirlwind of differing sources of a protean devil, Karl Bell has succeeded, through the narrative, of apprehending the fractions of Spring-heeled Jack. * GRAMARYE *A significant attempt to tackle an important aspect of Victorian popular culture. * HISTORY TODAY *A model of the way in which accounts of such phenomena should be studied. [...] A brilliant account of a fascinating subject. * MAGONIA *

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Book SynopsisThis study of the monument of Godfrey of Bouillon offers new insights to the political uses of public monuments devoted to figures from the past, modern uses and appropriations of the Middle Ages, and the role of historical culture in the creation of national identity. On 15 August 1848, a bronze equestrian statue of the crusading hero Godfrey of Bouillon (d.1100) was unveiled in the Place Royale in Brussels, Belgium's capital. Conceived and largely funded by the national government, its creation was a major element in a programme of political and cultural consolidation put into place after the Belgian Revolution (1830-1831) and the consequent establishment of the nation's independence. From the outset, the monument was designed to transmit ideas about history and nationhood, and functioned as a focal point in discussions of politics, language, religion and identity. This book sheds new light on a range of dynamics in nineteenth-century Belgium, using the statue as a prism; it investigates responses to it both home and abroad, and traces broader national interest in the commemoration of Godfrey, adopted as a national hero despite being born almost 800 years before the emergence of the state. Above all, it reveals that Belgian politics and culture in this period were profoundly shaped by a sustained interest in the Middle Ages, and by efforts to shape a historical narrative that traced Belgian nationhood back to that era, and beyond.Table of ContentsList of illustrations Acknowledgments A note on language and names List of abbreviations Preface Introduction 1. State-building, historical culture and public monuments in nineteenth-century Belgium 2. The physical setting of the monument: Brussels' Place Royale 3. The creation of the monument 4. The changing meanings of the monument 5. The monument as a lieu de mémoire I: culture and politics 6. The monument as a lieu de mémoire II: history and national identity Conclusion Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis'The authors set out to develop a framework that explains if and how co-creation can be used as ''strategy-as-practice.'' In doing so, they have produced a wonderful case study on co-creating a city's living and public space, the next movement and cultural turn following the ''creative class'' studies in urban design. There are innovative uses of narrative analysis to provide multiple perspectives of the co-creative process. It contains valuable insights for anyone interested in urban design.'- Hans Hansen, Texas Tech University'The book makes a very important contribution to the strategy-as-practice field as it proposes a thorough ethnography about how governments, academia, business, non-profits and citizens engage themselves in the strategic and collaborative process of planning. Drawing on a comprehensive and compelling notion of ''action nets'', the book provides a fascinating interpretive explanation that will be inspiring as well as for academics and practitioners. This timely volume raises a host of fascinating issues related to organizing and strategizing as ''co-creative practices'' and will be an invaluable resource across multiple domains and organizational research areas. Moreover, the book will convince you that ''small is beautiful''!'- Linda Rouleau, HEC Montreal, CanadaOver the past three decades, the European Capital of Culture has grown into one of the most ambitious cultural programs in the world. Through the promotion of cultural diversity across the continent, the program fosters mutual understanding and intercultural dialogue among citizens, thereby increasing their sense of belonging to a community. This insightful book outlines potential avenues through which culture and creativity can raise the imaginative capability of citizens and harness opportunities tied to what the book calls 'culture-driven growth'.Building on three years of observations, interviews and research the authors argue that a 'strategy-as-practice' perspective can reveal how strategy making is enabled or constrained by organizational and social practices. The authors reveal how the 'sweet-spot' of city regeneration occurs where urban and cultural planning are aligned. They then evaluate the practice of 'co-creation' within organizing bodies and investigate the extent to which its success depends on a fusion of top-down rules and bottom-up action. Urban Strategies for Culture-Driven Growth will appeal to international scholars and students in organization studies, geography, city governance and planning, urban design, and urban and regional development. Policymakers and planners will also find it to be a valuable resource.Trade Review'This book provides an important contribution on the links between urban planning and other types of organizing work performed in the name of the 'creative city'. Further, it also highlights the daunting challenges associated with attempting to realize highly ambitious ideals of decentralized co-creation, empowering a plethora of heterogeneous actors, in a manner that does not sell short democratic transparency and accountability.' --Jonathan Metzger, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden'A detailed, processual and ethnographic study of European Cities of Culture is overdue. This book fills an important gap in both scholarship and civic management. For any city authorities planning to bid for and stage future City of Culture programs it is an essential practical guide; for any researchers interested in the management of cities, those elusive, flexible objects of analysis, it will be an important contribution to their analytical toolbox. Lively and well researched, it is a must-read.' --Stewart Clegg, University of Technology Sydney, Australia'Organizing Cultural Capital events has become the contemporary equivalent of Tennesse Valley Authority: every city wants to do it, and prescriptions how to do it proliferate. This book is unique in that it presents many different stories and points of view, providing a detailed description of everyday organizing, but also original theoretical insights together with useful practical recommendations.' --Barbara Czarniawska, University of Gothenburg, SwedenTable of ContentsContents: 1. Co-creation and the city PART I: THE PLANNERS’ VIEW 2. The planning process 3. The ‘cultural turn’ in urban design PART II: THE VIEW FROM THE ACTION NETS 4. The organizer’s view: exploring emergent project action nets 5. The insider-participant view: common dualities on urban design and program organization 6. The public view: analysis of the narratives in the local press 7. Building a milieu for city marketing and branding The vignette collection PART III: THE ACHIEVEMENT 8. Comparisons with other European Capitals of Culture 9. Co-creating cities: future challenges Index

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Book SynopsisIn spite of being well into middle-age, Pac-Man's popularity shows no sign of decline and the character has appeared in over sixty games on virtually every games platform ever released. According to the David Brown celebrity index, in 2008, nearly three decades after initial release, 94% of Americans were able to recognise Pac-Man, which gave the character greater brand awareness than Super Mario. Pac-Man, with its avowed commitment to non-violence was a videogame of many firsts, including being designed to appeal to children and females and providing the first narrative interlude in a videogame. Although iconic, Pac-Man has not been subject to sustained critical analysis. This book helps to fill that gap, providing an extensive, sophisticated, but accessible analysis of the influence of Pac-Man on the way that we live in contemporary western societies.

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Book SynopsisMade in Brooklyn is a belated critique of the Maker Movement: from its origins in the nineteenth century to its impact on labor and its entanglement in the neoliberal economic model of the tech industry. Part history, part ethnography, Made in Brooklyn provides a unified analysis of how the tech industry has infiltrated artistic practice and urban space.

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Book SynopsisThe newest generation of leaders was raised on a steady diet of popular culture artifacts mediated through technology, such as film, television and online gaming. As technology expands access to cultural production, popular culture continues to play an important role as an egalitarian vehicle for promoting ideological dissent and social change. The chapters in this book examine works and creators of popular culture ? from literature to film and music to digital culture ? in order to address the ways in which popular culture shapes and is shaped by leaders around the globe as they strive to change their social systems for the better.Now is an exceptional time to explore the synergy between leadership, popular culture and social change. With analyses that span time, genre and space, the book?s contributors investigate works of popular culture as objects of leadership that help us to both reinforce and question our understandings of who we are and how we want to reshape the world around us.This dynamic examination of leadership presents a useful model of analysis not only for scholars of leadership and popular culture but also for cultural historians and educators across the humanities.Contributors include: K.M.S. Bezio, V.K. Bratton, P.D. Catoira, H. Connell Schaaf, L. DelPrato, S.J. Erenrich, K. Ganesan, S. Guenther, E.M. Holowka, K. Klimek, M.A. Menaldo, N.O. Warner, K. YostTable of ContentsContents: Introduction to Leadership, Popular Culture and Social Change Kristin M.S. Bezio PART I WRITTEN LEADERSHIP 1. Marlowe’s violent reformation: religion, government and rebellion on the Elizabethan Stage Kristin M.S. Bezio 2. Abdullah Munsyi’s nineteenth-century travelogue and its continued influence on Malaysian Literature in English Kavitha Ganesan 3. Totalizing tyranny: Mario Vargas Llosa’s The Feast of the Goat Mark A. Menaldo 4. Harry Potter and the leadership of resistance Kimberly Yost PART II AURAL LEADERSHIP 5. Women troubadours, horizontal leadership and the Mississippi Summer Project of 1964: a missing chapter in Civil Rights movement history Susan J. Erenrich 6. El Chapo for Presidente: an examination of leadership through Mexico’s Narcoculture Patricia D. Catoira and Virginia K. Bratton 7. An idol leader: David Bowie, self-representation, otherness and sexual identity Shawna Guenther PART III VISUAL LEADERSHIP 8. A two-way street: the leader-follower dynamic in Glory and Twelve O’Clock High Nicholas O. Warner 9. Becoming other: self-transformation and social change in Neill Blomkamp films Kimberly Yost 10. Ready, aim, feel: empathy, identification and leadership in video games Kristin M.S. Bezio 11. “War. War never changes”: using popular culture to teach traumatic events Kimberly Klimek PART IV DIGITAL LEADERSHIP 12. Between artifice and emotion: the “sad girls” of Instagram Eileen Mary Holowka 13. How light painters lead change through popular culture Laura DelPrato 14. Beyond bans and beyond the classroom: Wikipedia, leadership and social change in higher education Holly Connell Schaaf Epilogue Kimberly Yost Index

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Book SynopsisOver 200 years, industry has mastered iron, fire, power and energy. Today, electronics shape our everyday objects with the widespread integration of chips; from computers and telephones to keys, games and white goods. Data, software and computation structure our behavior and the organization of our lives. Everything is translated into data: the digit is king. Consisting of three volumes, The Digital Era explores technical, economic and social phenomena that result from the generalization of the Internet. This second volume discusses the impact of digital technology on the evolution of market relations and the media and examines the reasons why such changes put political economy to the test. Table of ContentsNote to Reader ix Preface xi Introduction xxvii Jean-Pierre CHAMOUX Part 1. A Disruptive Economy 1 Introduction to Part 1 3 Jean-Pierre CHAMOUX Chapter 1. Companies: the Great Transformation 7 Godefroy DANG N’GUYEN Information: the raw material of digital technology 10 The causes of disruption and their limits 14 The business philosophy of digital technology 15 Moving upmarket and buybacks 16 Concluding reflections 19 Bibliography 21 Chapter 2. Media: Innovation, Self-production, Creativity 23 Jean-Paul SIMON User-generated content: scaling up 26 Books, authors and communities 30 Cinema and video: creation, streaming and parodies 35 Do it yourself with music: new creativity? 39 Press and information: dialogue with readers or free work? 40 Video games: co-innovators? 43 Conclusion: creativity, but a limited model 45 Bibliography 47 Chapter 3. New Intermediaries: Extra-territorial Platforms 55 Stéphane GRUMBACH What has changed? 57 Intermediation 58 Platform economics 60 Laws of the digital economy 63 Going towards a new management of resources 69 Building political legitimacy 71 Conclusion 74 Bibliography 75 Part 2. New Perspectives 77 Introduction to Part 2 79 Jean-Pierre CHAMOUX Chapter 4. The Collaborative Economy: What Are We Talking About? 81 Godefroy DANG N’GUYEN Numerous examples 83 Commercial versus collaborative peer-to-peer 85 Peer-to-peer trading, the intermediation’s triumph 87 How is collaborative peer-to-peer actually organized? 91 Are commons manageable? 93 Looking at the future of collaborative peer-to-peer 96 Conclusion 97 Bibliography 99 Chapter 5. Towards a Post-industrial iconomy 101 Michel VOLLE Summary of previous times 103 Real and imagined digital influence 104 Can an intelligence be artificial? 109 Distinguishing power from intelligence 113 In summary: towards the iconomy? 115 Conclusion and recommendations 121 Bibliography 123 Chapter 6. The Chips Industry: Moore and Rock’s Laws 125 Gérard DRÉAN Some words about technique: where do we stand today? 127 High-tech production 128 An original economy 129 Rock’s law leads to concentration 130 De-integration, specialization and reconfiguration 132 How to stay in the lead pack? 133 Bibliography 135 Chapter 7. Measuring and Compiling Wealth 137 Jean-Pierre CHAMOUX National accounting and gross revenue 140 Consequences of post-industrial society 145 How can the digital economy be better described? 150 Elements for a summary 154 Bibliography 157 Appendix A. Microelectronics: a typically multinational sector 158 Appendix B. Trade, currencies and digital disruption 161 Conclusion 165 Jean-Pierre CHAMOUX Appendices 187 Appendix 1 189 Appendix 2 191 List of Authors 193 Index of Names and Brands 195 Index of Notions 199

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Book SynopsisFor 200 years, industry mastered iron, fire, strength and energy. Today, electronics shape our everyday objects, integrating chips everywhere: computers, phones, keys, games, household appliances, etc. Data, software and calculation frame the conduct of men and the administration of things. Everything is translated into data: the figure is king. This third and last volume of the series examines the creative destruction induced by digital, modifying manners and customs, law, society and politics.Table of ContentsI / Questions of society: discretion, transparency and liberties. 1 Return of the Leviathan? 2 On the use of social networks and e-mail 3 myths & utopias: towards a "new society"? II / Questions of interest: evolution or rupture? 4 Economy: moving into the post-industrial economy 5 A new creative destruction? 6 Digital Innovation & Trusted Society III / Political questions: does digital have a master? 7 Challenge for public action: to undergo, guide or coerce? 8 A case study: regulating algorithms 9 Digital and reason of State: an impossible equilibrium? IV / Prospects: a new avatar of technical progress? Magic of progress or end of history? Discrete data, perception and representation of reality; Schizoidism of digital change.

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Book Synopsis“What is colour?”, “What is the precise meaning of the statement ‘the stock exchange closes at a 5% drop this evening’?”, “How are TV viewers defined?”, or “How can images produce meaning?” Such everyday questions are examined in this book. To make our analysis intuitive and understandable, numerous concrete examples illustrate our theoretical framework and concepts. The examples include gaming, fictional skits in leisure entertainment, and enigmas. The golden thread running through the text revisits the informational process and places the datum as its pivot. The epistemological perspective of our novel approach is that of “radical relativity”. This is based on the precept that a perceptual trace carries with it the spectrum of the process that has engendered it. Given this, the informational tracking endeavour tracks the meaning-making process, notably through interpretive scaffoldings that leads to plausible realities.Table of ContentsIntroduction xiii Chapter 1. The First Information Theories 1 1.1. Introduction 1 1.2. The mathematical theory of information by Shannon 3 1.2.1. Beginnings of this theory 3 1.2.2. Shannon’s generalization 5 1.2.3. Information and entropy 6 1.3. Kolmogorov’s algorithmic theory of information 7 1.3.1. Succinct presentation 7 1.3.2. First algorithmic information theory 8 1.3.3. Second algorithmic information theory 9 1.4. Delahaye’s further developments 10 1.4.1. Gaps 10 1.4.2. Information value 10 1.4.3. Raw information content 11 1.4.4. Pragmatic aspects related to information value 12 1.5. Final remarks 13 Chapter 2. Understanding Shannon through Play 15 2.1. Introduction 15 2.2. The game of tele-balls 16 2.2.1. Layout and rules of the game 16 2.2.2. Producing the source event 17 2.2.3. Channel and transmission 17 2.2.4. Transmission 18 2.2.5. End of the process 19 2.3. The teachings of the tele-ball game 19 2.3.1. The concept of “tele” 20 2.3.2. The technical grounding 20 2.3.3. The system’s language 21 2.3.4. Synchronization and the clock 21 2.3.5. Introduction to noise 22 2.4. The general diagram of communication/transmission 22 2.4.1. Schematic diagram of a general communication system according to Shannon 23 2.4.2. Extension to information beyond the game of tele-balls 24 2.4.3. Sense and nonsense 25 2.4.4. Electronic media designers at work 27 2.5. Conceptual confusion in the so-called information theories 29 2.5.1. Terminological shift 29 2.5.2. Weaver’s levels of information 29 2.5.3. Measuring information: the CONTAINER 30 2.5.4. Inaccuracies and easy approximations between content and container 31 2.5.5. Opening to other perspectives 31 2.6. Conclusion 32 Chapter 3. “Tele” before Shannon 35 3.1. Introduction 35 3.2. The speaking African drums 35 3.2.1. The speaking drums 36 3.2.2. The tone as bit 36 3.2.3. Redundancy 37 3.3. The problems of long-distance communication 38 3.3.1. The ancient solutions 38 3.3.2. The telegraph 39 3.3.3. The Morse system 42 3.3.4. Alpha bravo code 44 3.4. Conclusion 45 Chapter 4. Some Revisions of the Concept of Information 47 4.1. Introduction 47 4.2. A double-faced concept: Capurro and Hjørland 48 4.2.1. Towards an operational concept 49 4.2.2. An etymological exploration 49 4.2.3. Oppositions and relations, taxonomy and complexity 51 4.2.4. Going on… between measurable signal and signifying emergence 52 4.3. The Mathematical Theory of Information (MTI) as a starting point: Segal 52 4.3.1. Mathematics rejoining the Human Sciences? 53 4.3.2. A measure for meaningless information 53 4.3.3. A unifying project that bumped into semantics 55 4.3.4. The incursion of information in the Human Sciences 56 4.3.5. Beyond the MTI 58 4.4. The Diaphoric Definition of Data (DDD): Floridi 59 4.4.1. Information, data, meaning 59 4.4.2. A definition of information based on data 61 4.4.3. Diaphoric Definition of Data in three levels 62 4.4.4. Diaphorae and saliencies 63 4.4.5. Data as a relational entity 64 4.4.6. Beyond the DDD 67 4.5. A pattern-oriented approach (POA): Bates 68 4.5.1. A definition of information based on patterns 69 4.5.2. Discussion 70 4.5.3. Final considerations, with the aim of approaching diverse viewpoints 73 4.6. Founding statements for a theory of information 75 4.6.1. Information and meaning 75 4.6.2. Notion of data 76 4.6.3. Notion of signal 76 4.6.4. Notion of information 77 4.6.5. Notion of sense 78 4.6.6. Notion of message 79 4.6.7. Before concluding 80 4.7. Conclusion 81 Chapter 5. Conceptualization and Representations 83 5.1. Introduction 83 5.2. Natural and artifactual devices for producing representations 84 5.2.1. Meaning? Data processing, representation and information! 84 5.2.2. Hierarchization of representational capabilities 86 5.2.3. Computerized artifacts modeling natural devices 91 5.3. Human conceptualization 94 5.3.1. The relativity of the object 94 5.3.2. The relativity of appearance qualifiers 95 5.3.3. A rigorous formalization of human conceptualization 100 5.4. About what “exists” in common thought, in natural language and in formal language 101 5.4.1. Concepts: the chair, the table and the beginning 101 5.4.2. Conceptual trompe-l’oeil 102 5.4.3. Sensory perception and object genesis 104 5.4.4. Kantian philosophy, the “real” and “knowledge” 108 5.5. The resulting epistemological revolutions 110 5.5.1. Not data, but constructions about the world 111 5.5.2. A relevance horizon-oriented framework 111 5.5.3. The end of truth and objectivity 112 5.6. Conclusion 113 Chapter 6. From Captures to Data 115 6.1. Introduction 115 6.2. An illustrative sketch: a view of the human body 116 6.2.1. The “human specimen” horizon of relevance, defined by its visible forms 116 6.2.2. The “patient” horizon of relevance, defined by its symptoms 117 6.2.3. The “pathology” horizon of relevance, defined by a specialized examination 117 6.2.4. The “clinical case” horizon of relevance, defined by a debate about the case 118 6.2.5. The horizon of Information and Communication Sciences 119 6.2.6. The radical relativity of the “viewpoint” 119 6.3. From the interactional bath to distinction 120 6.3.1. Postulates 120 6.3.2. The supremacy of subjectivity 121 6.3.3. First phase: cut-out in the tissue of indistinct interactions 122 6.3.4. Second phase: generation of an object-entity 123 6.4. Diaphoric data and qualification? 124 6.4.1. Description at the heart of the problem 124 6.4.2. A reminder of the diaphoric approach 126 6.4.3. Zero degree: a-conceptual captures 127 6.4.4. From a-conceptual captures to the factory of views 128 6.4.5. Back to the qualifying phase of the object-entity 129 6.5. Conclusion 131 Chapter 7. From Data to Aggregates 133 7.1. Introduction 133 7.2. Data: raw material of the semantic chain 134 7.2.1. Batesonian perspective 134 7.2.2. Informational raw material 135 7.2.3. Third phase: qualification of the object-entity 135 7.2.4. Rigorous formalization of the qualification of an object-entity 137 7.2.5. From capta to data 138 7.2.6. An example: the map and the territory 139 7.3. Aggregates: meaningful superstructures 140 7.3.1. Back to patterns: essential data or mental constructions? 141 7.3.2. Back to Gestalt theory 142 7.3.3. Aggregates for scaffolding a point of view 143 7.3.4. Aggregate operations: a basic example 144 7.3.5. Coalescence as the foundation for interpretive scaffolding 147 7.3.6. Conceptual integration 149 7.3.7. Pareidolia for illustrating interpretive scaffolding by coalescence 152 7.3.8. In the end 155 7.4. Meaning: individual production or social construct? 158 7.4.1. A subjective, situational and pragmatic conception 158 7.4.2. A laying-out of incommunicable individual experience 159 7.4.3. Negotiated and shareable meaning 160 7.4.4. Public procedures for legalizing knowledge 161 7.4.5. The horizon of relevance underlying conceptualization 162 7.5. Conclusion 163 Chapter 8. Trace Deployment from Indexical Retention to Writing 165 8.1. Introduction 165 8.2. The trace as registered indexical retention 168 8.2.1. Spectrum: the trace as past retention 168 8.2.2. The Res: inscription in a physical mode of existence 171 8.2.3. Wrapping up 175 8.3. The search of the trace as evidence or proof 175 8.3.1. The Studium: the search for meaning in context 176 8.3.2. The Documentum: instruction of the “trace process” 180 8.3.3. Summarizing 185 8.4. The trace as writing 186 8.4.1. The Punctum: writing beyond evidence 186 8.4.2. Some complementary comments before concluding 189 8.5. Conclusion 191 Chapter 9. Interpretive Scaffoldings in Context 195 9.1. Introduction 195 9.2. Information and trace 195 9.2.1. Specter of a real process that took place 195 9.2.2. Retention registered on a medium 197 9.2.3. Qualified by a coherent and credible aggregate 197 9.2.4. Authentified by tracking 198 9.2.5. Traces without information, information without traces? 201 9.3. The horizon of expectation, by Hans Robert Jauss 202 9.3.1. For a reception-centered approach 202 9.3.2 Introduction to the notion of horizon of expectation 203 9.3.3 A generalized cognitive translation of the horizon of expectation 203 9.4. Relevance, according to Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson 204 9.4.1. Communication and information according to Sperber and Wilson 205 9.4.2. Taking the context into account 206 9.4.3. The principle of relevance 208 9.5. Weaving the horizon of expectation and the theory of relevance 209 9.5.1. Extractions and generalizations 209 9.5.2. Being bound to a horizon of relevance 210 9.6. Coalescence considered under the light of a horizon of relevance 211 9.6.1. An ordinary example from everyday life 212 9.7. Interpretive aggregate by means of example: visual sense-making 214 9.7.1. Visual captures 215 9.7.2. Aggregate emergence 216 9.7.3. The horizon of relevance, a framework for interpretation 217 9.7.4. Conclusion 223 Chapter 10. Realities under the Watch of Horizons of Relevance 225 10.1. Introduction 225 10.2. Back to the relation to the Real 226 10.2.1. Truth is a fiction 226 10.2.2. Substituting reality for truth 227 10.2.3. Circumscribing the real versus qualifying the real 227 10.2.4. Interpretive scaffoldings 228 10.3. Some examples 230 10.3.1. A sculpture by Camille Claudel 230 10.3.2. A vegetable 231 10.3.3. Cultural modulations of meaning 232 10.3.4. The seeds of discord 233 10.3.5. The windows and their points of view 233 10.3.6. Final considerations 235 10.4. Conclusion: legalization of meaning in the age of Digital Humanities 235 Conclusion 237 Bibliography 241 Index 253

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Book SynopsisAuthors in this illuminating book probe the social and spiritual contexts from which select iconic figures emerge as innovators and cultural leaders and draw material into forms that subsequent generations consider pioneering and emblematic. The book identifies creators such as novelists, poets, performers and dramatists who are leaders in their respective genres, and in culture and society at large, and examines the influence exerted on and by their works. Critics and admirers understand the cultural leaders discussed in this book as significant figures affecting social and political change. The chapters cover a range of genres, time periods and individuals, mixing literary and historical analysis with concerns relevant to leadership studies. The book includes a cross-disciplinary analysis focusing on its subjects' roles as leaders within and beyond their fields. Scholars and students of religion, history and popular culture with wide-ranging interests in the humanities will find this book a unique and fascinating look at cultural leadership.Contributors include: J.L. Airey, Y. Ariel, K.M.S. Bezio, W. Clark Gilpin, T. Fessenden, K. Lofton, E. Marienberg, C. McCracken-Flesher, S. Paulsell, C.N. Pondrom, J. WiesenfarthTable of ContentsContents: Preface Introduction. Cultural icons and cultural leadership Peter Iver Kaufman PART I. ORIGINS OF CULTURAL INFLUENCE 1. Marlowe’s violent reformation: religion, government and rebellion on the Elizabethan stage Kristin M.S. Bezio 2. Jane Austen bowls a googly: the juvenilia Joseph Wiesenfarth 3. Walter Scott: an unexpected icon Caroline McCracken-Flesher 4. Mary Shelley’s Mathilda: gender and the limits of authorial leadership Jennifer L. Airey 5. Emily Dickinson’s civil war: the poet as an agent of cultural change W. Clark Gilpin PART II. CULTURAL LEADERSHIP IN THE MODERN AGE 6. Family resemblances: religion around Virginia Woolf Stephanie Paulsell 7. Cultural leadership and T.S. Eliot: from cultural icon to cultural leader—or not? Cyrena N. Pondrom 8. Billie Holiday and the discipline of progress Tracy Fessenden 9. A different kind of cultural icon: Allen Ginsberg as a counterleader Yaakov Ariel 10. I don’t want to fake you out: Bob Dylan and the search for belief in history Kathryn Lofton 11. Death, resurrection, sacraments and myths: religion around Sting Evyatar Marienberg Index

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Book SynopsisAlternativity delineates those spaces, scenes, club-cultures, objects and practices in modern society that are considered to be actively designed to be counter or resistive to mainstream popular culture. The idea of the alternative in popular culture became mainstream with the rise of the counter culture in 1960s America (though there were earlier forms of alternative cultures in America and other Western countries). Alternativity is associated with marginalization, both actively pursued by individuals, and imposed on individuals and sub-cultures, and was originally represented and constructed through acts of transgression, and through shared sub-cultural capital. This edited collection maps the landscape of alternativity and marginalization, providing new theory and methods in a currently under-theorized area, setting out the issues, questions, concerns and directions of this area of study. It demonstrates the theoretical richness and empirical diversity of the interdisciplinary field it encompasses, and is deliberately feminist in its approach and its composition, with a majority of the contributors being women. Divided into three sub-sections, focused on sub-cultures, bodies and spaces, contributors explore this exciting new terrain, both through critiques of theory and new theoretical developments, and case studies of alternativity and marginalization in practice and in performance, expanding our understanding of the alternative, the liminal and the transgressive.Trade ReviewIn this collection of essays, contributors in cultural studies, feminist theory, psychology, philosophy, music, cultural sociology, and American studies analyze issues and directions in studying alternative cultures. Most contributors are women, and most promote the advantages of using feminist approaches to study subcultures, scenes, and other manifestations of alternative popular cultures in America and other countries. Some subjects addressed include fashion subcultures, madness and disability, aging alternative women, regulation of tattooed female bodies, and women’s bodies in heavy metal. B&w photos are included. -- Annotation ©2018 * (protoview.com) *Table of ContentsIntroduction; Samantha Holland and Karl Spracklen Section I: Subcultures 1. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep Dressed in Street Fashions?: Investigating Virtually Constructed Fashion Subcultures; Theresa M. Winge 2. Cursed is the Fruit of Thy Womb: Inversion/Subversion and the Inscribing of Morality on Women's Bodies in Heavy Metal; Amanda DiGioia and Dr. Charlotte Naylor Davis 3. Japanophilia in Kuwait: How Far Does International Culture Penetrate?; Thorsten Botz-Bornstein 4. Misogyny as an Artistic Tool in the Construction of '80s Glam Metal's Aesthetics: An Alternative Perspective; Gareth Heritage 5. Reight Mardy Tykes: Gothic/Doom Metal as an Act of English Northernness; M. Selim Yavuz Section II: Bodies 6. Unwritten Rules and Societal Norms of Tattooed Female Bodies; Charlotte Dann 7. 'Tattooed and Beautiful?': Tattoo Collecting and Embodied Gender Deviance; Beverly Yuen Thompson 8. Russian Feminisms, Queer Activism and the Western Gaze: Female Bodies Between Spectacles and Celebration, Victimizations and (Self-)Marginalization; M. Katharina Wiedlack 9. Out of Time: Anohni and Transgendered/Transage Transgression; Abigail Gardner 10. Irrational Perspectives and Untenable Positions: Sociology, 'Mental Illness' and 'Dis'ability; Kay Inckle Section III: Spaces 11. Ageing Alternative Women: Discourses of Authenticity, Resistance and 'Coolness'; Samantha Holland 12. Girls to the Front? Gender and Alternative Spaces; Laura Way 13. "In the Land of Grey and Pink": Popular Music Alternativity in the Lived and Imagined City of Canterbury 2017; Asya Draganova and Shane Blackman Conclusion: Making Sense of Alternativity in Leisure and Culture: Back to Sub-Culture?; Karl Spracklen

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Book SynopsisAlbion's Secret History compiles snapshots of English pop culture’s rebels and outsiders, from Evelyn Waugh to PJ Harvey via The Long Blondes and The Libertines. By focusing on cultural figures who served to define England, Guy Mankowski looks at those who have really shaped Albion’s secret history, not just its oft-quoted official cultural history. He departs from the narrative that dutifully follows the Beatles, The Sex Pistols and Oasis, and, by instead penetrating the surface of England’s pop history (including the venues it was shaped in), throws new light on ideas of Englishness. As well as music, Mankowski draws from art, film, architecture and politics, showing the moments at which artists like Tricky and Goldfrapp altered our sense of a sometimes green but sometimes unpleasant land. 'The most illuminating odyssey through lost, hidden or forgotten English pop culture since Michael Bracewell's England Is Mine.' Rhian E. Jones, author of Clampdown: Pop-Cultural Wars on Class and Gender

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Book SynopsisThe London Dream tells the story of a city that promises opportunity, excitement and the possibility of prosperity. It is a mythology has launched millions of migrant journeys. No one benefits more from the flow of willed and willing workers than London’s employers. And still, they come. They come to a city propelled by a newly cool capitalism and hungry for workers to serve it. From actors to cleaners, academics to café workers, The London Dream explores the stories of Londoners chasing the dreams offered by the city and the economy within which their precarious hopes become profits.

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Book SynopsisIn the United Kingdom, the notion of a common culture has always been suggestive of a national culture which is accessible to all and provides various kinds of benefits to all, including participation in national cultural life. Brian Russell Graham's exploration of the theme aims to clarify how we might define common culture in the twenty-first century, and offers a perspective on specific benefits of such a shared culture. Common culture can generate a sense of inclusive national identity, he argues. Additionally, it can even out differences in our so-called ‘cultural capital’ – it can make people more equal in terms of their cultural lives.

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Book SynopsisThe hymn of Digitalization is nothing new: We must encourage the creation of new apps. We must develop AI in order to prevail among international competition. Technology's advance will halt climate change and let robots do the dumb stuff for us. Our faith in technology is powerful because it has saved us in the past. The Almighty Machine shows us technology’s flip side. The things that once powered us toward a brighter tomorrow are already undermining our quality of life. The data stream has shattered our concentration, human relationships have been reduced to a menu of emojis, constant surveillance has nullified much of our privacy, and the development of AI could be the beginning of the end for us. We are becoming the casualties of our own success. Pekka Vahvanen's bristling and timely critique, deftly translated by Mark Jones, throws doubt on the necessity of technological development in a world saturated in tech. The Almighty Machine presents an important question: Does progress no longer make us happier?

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Book SynopsisIn The Syndicate (2004) Nicholas Hagger described how in the 20th century a Syndicate of élitist mega-rich families levelled down the leading Western countries by promoting revolutions, wars and independence movements against their empires, and planned a New World Order and world government that would control the earth’s resources for their own benefit. In The Secret History of the West (2005) he traced the Syndicate’s roots back to secret Freemasonic organisations and revolutions that undermined the West from the Renaissance to the early 20th century. In The Fall of the West (2022), the third book in his trilogy on the West, Hagger updates the story to include the pandemic and describes how Syndicate-driven 21st-century events from the War on Terror to Covid have brought the Western financial system to the brink of collapse and shifted power from the West to the East, and China. In this first impartial attempt to assemble all the evidence to date for the origin of Covid (like fitting together available pieces of a jigsaw to reveal the main picture) Hagger, the first to discover the Cultural Revolution in China in March 1966, finds that the three main features of Covid-19 were man-made by American NIAID-funded medics in 2002 and patented 73 times since 2008, and seem to have been surreptitiously used as a bio-weapon in a Syndicate plan to limit the rise of China and its expanding trade. A dangerous new Biological Age has been born, and the West faces being levelled down and a sudden fall. Hagger sees the post-Covid West’s dream of creating a good New World Order - a vaccine-protected democratic, presidential, part-federal world government and World State with sufficient authority to abolish war and solve the world’s post-Covid problems - as being challenged by the self-interested Syndicate’s levelling-down; and to survive, it first has to go along with the Syndicate’s plan for West and East to draw together into an authoritarian world government involving China, and democratise later. This is a thought-provoking work with a prophetic vision of the future.

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Book SynopsisAs a former British colony (1842–1997) and then a Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong has witnessed at all times how relations are formed, dissolved and refashioned amidst changing powers, identities and narratives, given the many names it possessed over the course of history, from ‘Barren Rock’, ‘Fragrant Harbour’, ‘Port of Incense’, ‘Pearl of the Orient’, ‘Asia’s World City’, ‘Vertical City’, ‘Floating City’ to ‘City at the End of Time’ among others. In the post-handover, post-hangover years, the circulation, reverberation and reception of cultural symbols, old and new, such as the King of Kowloon, Song Emperor’s Terrace, and Lion Rock have revealed the multifaceted appearances and connotations of Hong Kong’s ‘local’. At the intersections between real-life events, cultural production and consumption and multiple voices, the book extracts and examines the local relations between the inhabitants of the territory and the human and nonhuman agencies that stand or that have once stood for Hong Kong across time and through space. Via the lens of places, things and cultural icons, the book offers lessons to learn from Hong Kong by opening up manifold postcolonial, translocal and planetary perspectives to confront and interrogate the volatile experiences in the new millennia—unprecedented since the Cold War period of the twentieth century—shared by Hong Kong and other regions. After all, what does it mean, or take, to live in the contemporary world when the local, global and national are constantly given new meanings?Trade Review“This is a highly original and timely study in a field that is still developing, having been neglected in terms of its global cultural significance until very recently. Now Dr Wu’s book couldn’t be more topical.”Professor Michael Ingham, Lingnan University, Hong KongTable of ContentsINTRODUCTION: THE HANGOVER AFTER THE HANDOVERCHAPTER 1LOCAL RELATIONS AND THEIR POSTCOLONIAL OUTLOOKSCHAPTER 2HONG KONG’S LOCAL: (DE-)GENERATING LOCAL RELATIONSCHAPTER 3ALL HAIL THE KING OF KOWLOON! MEDIATING MALLEABLE MATERIALITYCHAPTER 4CONNECTING WITH THE LOCAL, OR NOT: THE SONG EMPEROR’S TERRACECHAPTER 5ANOTHER ROCK, ANOTHER HONG KONG STORY: LION ROCK FROM BELOW AND ABOVECONCLUSION: LOCAL AND TRANSLOCAL: LESSONS FROM HONG KONGBIBLIOGRAPHY

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Book SynopsisAI and Popular Culture explores the development and social significance of artificial intelligence by looking at representations in fiction, film and television, as well as examining the effect of AI technologies on the way we consume culture. Lee Barron traces the evolution of AI – from the Turing Machine to deep learning, to interrogate the key issues and debates. He uses examples of AI from pop culture to help us understand how the technology is changing aspects of society from surveillance and work to human relationships with technology. AI and Popular Culture sheds light on how artificial intelligence has changed our world and helps you to understand where it might take us next. It also makes significant contributions to Media and Cultural Studies, Humanities, and Social Sciences, as well as to subjects such as AI Ethics and Society and Computing.Table of ContentsIntroduction- The Age of AI Technics Chapter 1. The Development of Artificial Intelligence and AI Debates Chapter 2. AI and Literature Chapter 3. AI and Film Chapter 4. AI and Television Chapter 5. AI Culture: Living with Artificial Intelligence Conclusion- AI Futures: The Terminator, Kurzweil or Machine Learning Scenario?

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Book SynopsisAs a former British colony (1842–1997) and then a Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong has witnessed at all times how relations are formed, dissolved and refashioned amidst changing powers, identities and narratives, given the many names it possessed over the course of history, from ‘Barren Rock’, ‘Fragrant Harbour’, ‘Port of Incense’, ‘Pearl of the Orient’, ‘Asia’s World City’, ‘Vertical City’, ‘Floating City’ to ‘City at the End of Time’ among others. In the post-handover, post-hangover years, the circulation, reverberation and reception of cultural symbols, old and new, such as the King of Kowloon, Song Emperor’s Terrace, and Lion Rock have revealed the multifaceted appearances and connotations of Hong Kong’s ‘local’. At the intersections between real-life events, cultural production and consumption and multiple voices, the book extracts and examines the local relations between the inhabitants of the territory and the human and nonhuman agencies that stand or that have once stood for Hong Kong across time and through space. Via the lens of places, things and cultural icons, the book offers lessons to learn from Hong Kong by opening up manifold postcolonial, translocal and planetary perspectives to confront and interrogate the volatile experiences in the new millennia—unprecedented since the Cold War period of the twentieth century—shared by Hong Kong and other regions. After all, what does it mean, or take, to live in the contemporary world when the local, global and national are constantly given new meanings?Trade Review“This is a highly original and timely study in a field that is still developing, having been neglected in terms of its global cultural significance until very recently. Now Dr Wu’s book couldn’t be more topical.”Professor Michael Ingham, Lingnan University, Hong KongTable of ContentsINTRODUCTION: THE HANGOVER AFTER THE HANDOVERCHAPTER 1LOCAL RELATIONS AND THEIR POSTCOLONIAL OUTLOOKSCHAPTER 2HONG KONG’S LOCAL: (DE-)GENERATING LOCAL RELATIONSCHAPTER 3ALL HAIL THE KING OF KOWLOON! MEDIATING MALLEABLE MATERIALITYCHAPTER 4CONNECTING WITH THE LOCAL, OR NOT: THE SONG EMPEROR’S TERRACECHAPTER 5ANOTHER ROCK, ANOTHER HONG KONG STORY: LION ROCK FROM BELOW AND ABOVECONCLUSION: LOCAL AND TRANSLOCAL: LESSONS FROM HONG KONGBIBLIOGRAPHY

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Book SynopsisAn intriguing study of a unique and unsettling cultural phenomenon in Victorian England. WINNER of the 2013 Katharine Briggs Award NEW LOWER PRICE This book uses the nineteenth-century legend of Spring-Heeled Jack to analyse and challenge current notions of Victorian popular cultures. Starting as oral rumours, this supposedly supernatural entity moved from rural folklore to metropolitan press sensation, co-existing in literary and theatrical forms before finally degenerating into a nursery lore bogeyman to frighten children. A mercurial and unfixed cultural phenomenon, Spring-Heeled Jack found purchase in both older folkloric traditions and emerging forms of entertainment. Through this intriguing study of a unique and unsettling figure, Karl Bell complicates our appreciation of the differences, interactions and similarities between various types of popular culture between 1837 and 1904. The book draws upon a rich variety of primary source material including folklorist accounts, street ballads, several series of "penny dreadful" stories (and illustrations), journals, magazines, newspapers, comics, court accounts, autobiographies and published reminiscences. The Legend of Spring-Heeled Jack is impressively researched social history and provides a fascinating insight into Victorian cultures. It will appeal to anyone with an interest in nineteenth-century English social and cultural history, folklore or literature. Karl Bell is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Portsmouth.Trade ReviewA good example of the ways in which cultural history still has the potential to unlock meaning when applied to a particular sort of problem. * ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW *Embraces the sheer messiness and multivocal nature of popular culture and thus radically advances our understanding of the Victorians and their world. * AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW *A careful and thoughtful look at a moral panic become myth that well deserved its 2013 Katherine Brigg's award. ... All future writing will owe a debt to this book. ... In bottling this whirlwind of differing sources of a protean devil, Karl Bell has succeeded, through the narrative, of apprehending the fractions of Spring-heeled Jack. * GRAMARYE *A significant attempt to tackle an important aspect of Victorian popular culture. * HISTORY TODAY *A model of the way in which accounts of such phenomena should be studied. [...] A brilliant account of a fascinating subject. * MAGONIA *Table of ContentsIntroduction The Legend of Spring-heeled Jack The Cultural Anatomy of a Legend Spring-heeled Jack, Crime and the Reform of Customary Culture Spring-heeled Jack and Victorian Society Spring-heeled Jack and London Cultural Nodes: Localities Cultural Modes: Oral, Literary and Visual The Decline and Demise of Spring-heeled Jack Conclusion: Spring-heeled Jack and Victorian Popular Cultures Bibliography

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Book SynopsisIn an innovative approach drawn from Memory Studies, this book seeks to uncover how the Norman Conquest is popularly "remembered". The Norman Conquest is one of the most significant events in British history - but how is it actually remembered and perceived today? This book offers a study of contemporary British memory of the Norman Conquest, focussing on shared knowledge, attitudes and beliefs. A major source of evidence for its findings are references to the Norman Conquest in contemporary British newspaper articles: 807 articles containing references to the Conquest were collectedfrom ten British newspapers, covering a recent three year period. A second important source of information is a quantitative survey for which a representative sample of 2000 UK residents was questioned. These sources are supplemented by the study of contemporary books and film material, as well as medieval chronicles for comparative purposes, and the author also draws on cultural theory to highlight the characteristics and functions of distant memory and myth. The investigation culminates in considering the potential impact of memory of the Norman Conquest in Britain today. Siobhan Brownlie is a Lecturer in the School of Arts, Languages & Cultures at the University of Manchester.Trade ReviewThis fascinating book [is] part of a new and very welcome move towards rigorous quantitative study in the field of the public understanding of the past....Brownlie['s] analysis of the myth of the 'Norman Yoke' and its rich radical history is particularly illuminating. * MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY *Brownlie's very valuable, stimulating and thought-provoking contribution should encourage other scholars to follow her into this field. * FOLKLORE *An excellent analysis of how myth and memory interrelate. * JOURNAL OF FOLKLORE RESEARCH *Table of ContentsMemory and Method Knowledge, Symbolization and Tradition Multiple Remediation Presentism and Multidirectionality Affective Mobility Mythologization: A Founding Myth A Time-honoured Myth Contradictory Myths Memorial and Mythic Functions Significance of Distant Memory Afterword Appendices Bibliography

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Book SynopsisAn examination of the ways in which the fluid concept of "chivalry" has been used and appropriated after the Middle Ages. One of the most difficult and complex ethical and cultural codes to define, chivalry has proved a flexible, ever-changing phenomenon, constantly adapted in the hands of medieval knights, Renaissance princes, early modern antiquarians, Enlightenment scholars, modern civic authorities, authors, historians and re-enactors. This book explores the rich variations in how the Middle Ages were conceptualised and historicised to illuminate the plurality of uses of the past. Using chivalry as a lens through which to examine concepts and uses of the medieval, it provides a critical assessment of the ways in which medieval chivalry became a shorthand to express contemporary ideals, powerfully demonstrating the ways in which history could be appropriated. The chapters combine attention to documentary evidence with what material culture can tell us, in particular using the built environment and the landscape as sources to understand how the medieval past was renegotiated. With contributions spanning diverse geographic regions and periods, it redraws current chronological boundaries by considering medievalism from the late Middle Ages to the present. Katie Stevenson is Senior Lecturer in Late Mediaeval History and Director of the Institute of Scottish Historical Research at the University of St Andrews; Barbara Gribling is a Junior Research Fellow in the Department of History at Durham University. Contributors: David W. Allan, Stefan Goebel, Barbara Gribling, Steven C. Hughes, Peter N. Lindfield, Antti Matikkala, Rosemary Mitchell, Paul Pickering, Katie StevensonTrade ReviewFull of fascinating discussion regarding the long-term cultural impacts of chivalry. * FOLKLORE *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Chivalry and the Medieval Past - Katie Stevenson and 'An Institution Quite Misunderstood': Chivalry and Sentimentalism in the Late Scottish Enlightenment - David W. Allan Creating a 'Medieval Past' for the Swedish Orders of Knighthood - Antti Matikkala 'Hung Round with the Helmets, Breast-Plates, and Swords of our Ancestors': Allusions to Chivalry in Eighteenth-Century Gothicism - Peter N. Lindfield Knights on the Town? Commercial and Civic Chivalry in Victorian Manchester - Rosemary A. Mitchell 'The Dark Side of Chivalry': Victory, Violence and the Victorians - Barbara Gribling Daze and Knights: Anachronism, Duelling and the Chivalric Ethic in Nineteenth-Century Italy - Steven C. Hughes The German Crusade: The Battles of Tannenberg, 1410 and 1914 - Stefan Goebel 'Hark ye back to the age of valour': Re-enacting Chivalry from the Eglinton Tournament to Kill Streak - Paul Pickering

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Book SynopsisEssays on the post-modern reception and interpretation of the middle ages, with a particular focus on its relationship with business and finance. Academia has never been immune to corporate culture, and despite the persistent association of medievalism with escapism, perhaps never has that been more obvious than at the present moment. The six essays that open the volume explore precisely how financial institutions have promoted, distorted, appropriated, resisted, and repudiated post-medieval interpretations of the middle ages. In the second part of the book, contributors explore medievalism in a variety of areas, juxtaposing specific case studies with broader investigations of the discipline's motives and methods; they include Charles Kingsley's racial Anglo-Saxonism, Jessie L. Weston's Sir Gawain and the treatment of womenin medievalist film. The book also includes a spirited response to previous Studies in Medievalism volumes on the topic neomedievalism. Contributors: Harry Brown, Henrik Aubert, Helen Brookman, Pamela Clements, KellyAnnFitzpatrick, Jil Hanifan, Michael R. Kightley, Felice Lifshitz, Lauren S. Mayer, Brent Moberley, Kevin Moberley, E. L. Risden, Carol L. Robinson, M. J. Toswell, J. Rubén Valdés MiyaresTrade ReviewPresents an exciting and thoughtful selection of essays. * MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Table of ContentsEditorial Note - Lives of Total Dedication? Medieval and Modern Corporate Identity - M J Toswell Reincorporating the Medieval: Morality, Chivalry, and Honor in Post-Financial-Meltdown Corporate Revisionism - Brent Moberly Reincorporating the Medieval: Morality, Chivalry, and Honor in Post-Financial-Meltdown Corporate Revisionism - Kevin Moberly Medievalism and Representations of Corporate Identity - Jil Hanifan and KellyAnn Fitzpatrick Knights of the Ownership Society: Economic Inequality and Medievalist Film - Harry Brown A Corporate neo-Beowulf: Ready or Not, Here We Come - E L Risden Unsettled Accounts: Corporate Culture and George R. R. Martin's Fetish Medievalism - Lauryn S. Mayer Historicizing Neumatic Notation: Medieval Neumes as Cultural Artifacts of Early Modern Times - Eduardo Henrik Aubert Hereward the Dane and the English, but Not the Saxon: Kingsley's Racial Anglo-Saxonism - Michael R. Kightley From Romance to Ritual: Jessie L. Weston's Gawain - Helen Brookman The Cinematic Sign of the Grail - J R Valdes Miyares Destructive Dominae: Women and Vengeance in Medievalist Films - Felice Lifshitz Neomedievalism Unplugged - Pamela Clements and Carol Robinson Notes on Contributors

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Book SynopsisDefinitions of key words and terms for the study of medievalism. The discipline of medievalism has produced a great deal of scholarship acknowledging the "makers" of the Middle Ages: those who re-discovered the period from 500 to 1500 by engaging with its cultural works, seeking inspiration from them, or fantasizing about them. Yet such approaches - organized by time period, geography, or theme - often lack an overarching critical framework. This volume aims to provide such a framework, by calling into question the problematic yet commonly accepted vocabulary used in Medievalism Studies. The contributions, by leading scholars in the field, define and exemplify in a lively and accessible style the essential terms used when speaking of the later reception of medieval culture. The terms: Archive, Authenticity, Authority, Christianity, Co-disciplinarity, Continuity, Feast, Genealogy, Gesture, Gothic, Heresy, Humor, Lingua, Love, Memory, Middle, Modernity, Monument, Myth, Play, Presentism, Primitive, Purity, Reenactment, Resonance, Simulacrum, Spectacle, Transfer, Trauma, Troubadour Elizabeth Emery is Professor of French and Graduate Coordinator at Montclair State University (Montclair, NJ, USA); Richard Utz is Chair and Professor of Medievalism Studies in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech (Atlanta, GA, USA). Contributors: Nadia Altschul, Martin Arnold, Kathleen Biddick, William C. Calin, Martha Carlin, Pam Clements, Michael Cramer, Louise D'Arcens, Elizabeth Emery, Elizabeth Fay, Vincent Ferré, Matthew Fisher, Karl Fugelso, Jonathan Hsy, Amy S. Kaufman, Nadia Margolis, David Matthews,Lauryn S. Mayer, Brent Moberly, Kevin Moberly, Gwendolyn Morgan, Laura Morowitz, Kevin D. Murphy, Nils Holger Petersen, Lisa Reilly, Edward Risden, Carol L. Robinson, Juanita Feros Ruys, Tom Shippey, Clare A. Simmons, Zrinka Stahuljak, M. Jane Toswell, Richard Utz, Angela Jane Weisl.Trade ReviewI firmly believe this book will prove quite useful to students, professors, and the general reader. The variety of ideas, approaches, and subjects touched upon is stunning and will reward careful reading. * MEDIEVALLY SPEAKING *[I]nvites the readers to confront themselves with an 'open structure' that is not only the mark of a heuristic approach but also a real epistemological method. . . . In the years to come, this list of key terms will certainly lay the foundations for the renewal of medievalist disciplines, by broadening their outlook and improving their hermeneutical tools. * COMITATUS *Emery and Utz provide an encyclopedia of essential vocabulary (e.g., authenticity, gothic, primitive) written by leading scholars, often accompanied by brief but engaging case studies. . . . . The reader is left with a firm grounding in the depth and scope of the scholarly field and various recreational pursuits of both amateurs and specialists. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Table of ContentsMaking Medievalism: A Critical Overview - Elizabeth Emery and Richard Utz Archive - Matthew Fisher Authenticity - Pamela Clements Authority - Gwendolyn Morgan Christianity - William Calin Co-Disciplinarity - Jonathan Hsy Continuity - Feast - Martha Carlin Genealogy - Zrinka Stahuljak Gesture - Carol L. Robinson Gothic - Kevin Murphy and Lisa Reilly Heresy - Nadia Margolis Humor - Clare A Simmons Lingua - M J Toswell Love - Juanita Feros Ruys Memory - Vincent Ferre Middle - David Matthews Modernity - Tom Shippey Monument - E L Risden Myth - Martin Arnold Play - Brent Moberly and Kevin Moberly Presentism - Louise D'Arcens M80534 - Laura Morowitz Purity - Amy S. Kaufman Reenactment - Michael A Cramer Resonance - Nils Holger Petersen Simulacrum - Lauryn S. Mayer Spectacle - Angela Jane Weisl Transfer - Nadia Altschul Trauma - Kathleen Biddick Troubadour - Elizabeth Fay

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Book SynopsisIn 1969, California is not just the new Eldorado: it is the crucible where civilisation is accelerating, self-destructs, and is reborn. It's the probe of Spaceship Earth. The hippy phenomenon, communes, the ecological movement, great collective ceremonies like park-ins and rock concerts, the flourishing of sects ranging from mystics to Marxists, the experience of 'weed' and 'acid', are temporary images and elements of a search for a new truth, a new religion, a new society. Long before it became fashionable for European intellectuals to write about their voyages to the United States, Edgar Morin, one of France's leading intellectual figures and at that time known as a path-breaking and innovative sociologist and researcher of popular culture, recounts the story of his experiences in the cauldron of change that was California, including his encounters with some of the leading minds of that time. The book combines Morin's accounts of his experiences with his own search for answers to fundamental questions about the human condition. For a few months, the author had a profound feeling of being drawn into the heart of the 'great questions', played out personally and societally. The result is an engaging and prophetic work that has as much if not more to offer today than it did when it was first published in French.

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Book SynopsisThere is a powerful sense of place at the seaside. You know what to expect. Fishing villages usually have a pier, boats, lobster pots, and masses of seagulls while resort towns have esplanades, piers, grand hotels and gardens. Certain seaside towns have just about everything: Weymouth, for example, has a grand parade of hotels, a wide esplanade and a small fishing village. Blackpool has more of everything – three piers, miles of hotels, the Tower, Winter Gardens, trams, illuminations – but no fishing and no castle! There is something about the seaside that brings out the beating heart of John Bull in the English: doggedly erecting our wind-breaks to capture every vestige of a watery sun; wrestling with deckchairs; wrapping up against the determined wind on the verandas of our beach huts; accepting that ‘sand’ in ‘sandwich’ means just that! But we still love it and nowhere else in the world can match its myriad charms and eccentricities. For too long the English seaside has suffered from bad press, accused of being tatty, cold grey and windswept. Peter Williams’ evocative photographs in this fully revised edition of his acclaimed book will make you want to rediscover what a fantastic place the seaside is – full of character, charm and ‘Englishness’. Trade ReviewIt tells the story almost entirely in photographs after a foreword, and captures well the atmosphere of seaside towns, whether sedate or raucous, their views, amenities and curious quirks.Mark Smulian, Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History SocietyTable of Contents Foreword by John K Walton Introduction by Peter Williams The natural coast Fishing Lighthouses Time and tide Weather Lifeboats War and peace Religion Bathing On the beach Punch and Judy Donkeys Piers Beach huts Cliff lifts Hotels Wooden walls Caravans and chalets Seaside architecture of the 1930s Shelters Telephone Kiosks Something to sit on Contemporary seaside sculpture Public conveniences Seaside gardens Model villages Amusements Helter-skelters Carousels Golf Food Famous people Palmists and clairvoyants Joke shops Pirates, smugglers and wreckers Signage Wind farms Art galleries and museums Contemporary buildings A nice cup of tea Staring out to sea Acknowledgements Index of places

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Book SynopsisWhy Catalans insist on their identity. The tragic fate of the millenary personality of Catalonia has rarely been fully appreciated abroad. Since the early eighteenth century its national voice has been submerged and fractured by a centralist state intent on its arbitrary, unitarian vision of a homogenized Spain. Catalan difference has emerged sporadically in the persons of such irrepressible geniuses as Gaudí, Dalí, Miró and Bigas Luna but, in the configuration of modern Europe, the relentlessinevitability of the unified state has imposed and re-imposed its singular cultural voice. The present volume attempts to equip the English-speaking reader with a fuller understanding of the uniqueness and quality of the culture of Catalonia by providing a comprehensive portfolio of the creative contribution of the nation across a broad spectrum of achievement. Though the artistic wealth of the medieval period is acknowledged appropriately, this study, with its focus on the modern age, privileges excellence not only in the more conventional, academic spheres of history, music, language, literature and the arts but also explores the value of more basic, popular experience inareas such as sport, cinema, festivals, cuisine and the city of Barcelona. DOMINIC KEOWN is Reader in Catalan at the University of Cambridge. CONTRIBUTORS: Elisenda Barbé, Robert Davidson, Alexander Ibarz, Louise Johnson, Dominic Keown, Tess Knighton, Jaume Martí-Olivella, Dorothy Noyes, Montserrat Roser i Puig, Antoni Segura, Miquel Strubell.Trade ReviewA lively and informative volume that covers a wide range of aspects of Catalan culture ... Currently the only book on the market that provides this sort of introductory overview of contemporary Catalan culture, it should become a key text for undergraduate courses especially ... a solid and dependable companion. * BULLETIN OF SPANISH STUDIES *A much-needed and timely step in the right direction for Catalan Studies. * HISPANIA *[The editor] has given 'lay' readers of English an accessible introduction to the country's history and culture. Second, he has but provided his colleagues in the field of Catalan Studies with a very solid conceptual base for future growth and innovation. The editor and his collaborators should be warmly saluted for carrying out this very important work. * CATALAN REVIEW *In summary [...] for any student, or academic, studying Hispania.it is a must read. * REFERENCE REVIEWS *[T]his relatively brief volume is succinct and impressively complete. It covers a broad range of topics, each treated with care by its author. [...] The contributors offer masterful syntheses and sharp analyses of complex issues. [...] Informative, insightful, and engaging, this volume will interest readers in search of a general survey. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsContemporary Catalan Culture - Dominic Keown Medieval Catalan Culture, 801-1492 - Alexander Ibarz Catalonia: From Industrialisation to the Present Day - Antoni Segura Catalonia: From Industrailisation to the Present Day - Elisenda Barbe Barcelona: The Siege City - Robert Davidson The Catalan Language - Miquel Strubell Sport and Catalonia - Louise Johnson The Music of Catalonia - Tess Knighton Catalan Cinema: An Uncanny Transnational Performance - Jaume Marti-Olivella Festival and the Shaping of Catalan Community - Dorothy Noyes What's Cooking in Catalonia? - Montserrat Roser i Puig

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Book SynopsisBrazil's pressing socio-political questions as seen through the country's horror-film-influenced audio-visual production between 2008 and 2022.

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Book SynopsisFlares are in. Flares are out. Flares are back again. Fads constantly cycle and recycle through popular culture, each time in a slightly new incarnation. The term retro' has become the buzz word for describing such trends, but what does it mean? Elizabeth Guffey explores here the ambiguous cultural meanings of the term and reveals why some trends just never seem to stay dead. Drawing upon a wealth of original research and entertaining anecdotal material, Guffey unearths the roots of the term retro and chronicles its evolving manifestations in culture and art throughout the last century. Whether in art, design, fashion or music, the idea of retro has often meant a re-emergence of styles and sensibilities that evoke familiar touchstones of memory from the not-so-distant past. Guffey explores how and why the past keeps coming back to haunt us in a variety of forms, from the comeback of Art Nouveau nearly fifty years after its original decline, to the infusion of Art Deco into the kitsch glamour of Pop art, to the recent popularity over 1980s vogue.She also considers how advertisers and media have employed the power of such cultural nostalgia, using recycled television jingles, familiar old slogans and famous art to sell a surprising range of products. An engrossing and wholly unprecedented study, "Retro" reveals how the past is embedded in the future of contemporary art and culture.Trade Reviewan enjoyable exploraton of retro chic ... Guffey offers an intriguing investigation of our seduction by the past The Independent provides an interesting take on the various rapidly recycling revivals of the late 20th century ... a thought-provoking read - it weaves in lots of fresh and stimulating material which adds to our understanding of the complexities of post war cultural life. Building Design This is an informative, interesting and provocative book that adds depth and complexity to many aspects of modern art and design history and to diverse related areas of academic study. Journal of Design History In this informative and lively book, Elizabeth Guffey cuts through the ambiguities of the term retro and examines its roots, evolution and myriad manifestations ... Throughout, the book seeks to understand how and why the recent past has been transformed into a revolving door of pop historicism ... Based on considerable original research and including rich anecdotal material, the book is aimed at all readers interested in retro as well as twentieth century art, design and consumer culture. Concept for Living Magazine Guffey's analysis is an important complement to design-history books that gloss over cultural undercurrents that help shape the way things look. Winterthur Portfolio

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Book SynopsisSometimes popular music registers our concerns and anxieties more lucidly than we realise. This is evident in the case of an ideal of childhood innocence in rapid decay in recent decades.So claims Down with Childhood, as it takes in psychedelia's preoccupation with rebirth and inner-children, the fascination with juvenilia amidst an ebbing UK rave scene and dozens of nursery rhyme hip-hop choruses spawned by a hit Jay-Z tune.As it examines the often complex sets of meanings to which the occasional presence of children in pop songs attests, the book pauses at Musical Youth's 'Pass the Dutchie' and other one-hit teen wonders, the career paths of child stars including Michael Jackson and Britney Spears, radical experiments in free jazz, and Black Panther influenced children's soul groups.In the process, a novel argument begins to emerge relating the often remarked crisis of childhood to changing experiences of work and play and ultimately, to an ongoing capitalist crisis that underlies them.

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Book SynopsisWe Are the Mutants is a critical reassessment of what is arguably the most discussed and beloved stretch of movies in Hollywood history. Documenting the period between the arrival of US combat troops in Vietnam and the end of President Ronald Reagan’s second term, the book forgoes the usual and restrictive exemplars of “auteur cinema,” and instead focuses on an eclectic selection of films and genres — horror, documentary, disaster, vigilante action, neo-noir, post-apocalyptic sci-fi — to track this period's tumultuous transformation in American life, culture, and politics. By exploring cult classics like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Escape from New York, as well as studio blockbusters like The Exorcist and Fatal Attraction, We Are the Mutants rewrites the history of modern American cinema and, in doing so, the history of America itself.Trade Review“A highly enjoyable read for film fans hungry for an alternative point of view. The writing is intelligent, detailed, and well-researched without drifting into the academic and dry, and its arguments are frequently invigorating and thought-provoking.”"An intriguingly sharp and offbeat study of US cinema from the 60s to the 80s."

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Book SynopsisCultural China is a unique annual publication for up-to-date, informed and accessible commentary about Chinese and Sinophone languages, cultural practices, politics and production, and their critical analysis. It builds on research and perspectives central to the Contemporary China Centre, based at the University of Westminster, and the Contemporary China Centre Blog. The chapters in this Review speak to the challenging and eventful year that was 2021 as it unfolded across cultural China. Thematically, they range from health and medicine, environment, food, children and parenting via film, red culture and calls to action. Many of the contributions in this edited collection focus on the People's Republic of China, but they also draw attention to the multiple Chinese and Sinophone cultural practices that exist within, across and beyond national borders. The Review is distinctive in its cultural studies-based approach and contributes a much-needed critical perspective from the humanities to the study of cultural China. It aims to promote interdisciplinary dialogue and debate about the social, cultural, political and historical dynamics that inform life in cultural China today offering academics, activists, practitioners and politicians a key reference with which to situate current events in and relating to cultural China in a wider context.

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Book SynopsisSince 1968, Garry Trudeau (b. 1948) has brought his brand of political satire to bear on public figures, movie stars, heads of state, and even on himself. Trudeau has also advocated for artists' rights and challenged industry norms while keeping a decidedly low profile. In Garry Trudeau: ""Doonesbury"" and the Aesthetics of Satire, Kerry D. Soper traces the contribution of this groundbreaking artist.Trudeau is arguably the premier American political and social satirist of the last forty years. Amazingly, he achieved this on the comics page, rather than the editorial page. By defying convention, Trudeau has established a hybrid form of popular satire that capitalizes on the narrative continuity and broad reach of the comic strip form, while operating according to the rules of combative political commentary.Garry Trudeau: ""Doonesbury"" and the Aesthetics of Satire is divided into chapters that offer a history of Doonesbury; an analysis of Trudeau's effective satiric methods; a discussion of the methods whereby he challenged the business practices of the comic strip industry; an examination of the aesthetics of Doonesbury; and a consideration of Trudeau's significance as a social chronicler through an analysis of his character construction, narrative practices, and documentation of the American zeitgeist. Garry Trudeau is a thorough assessment of one of America's most popular and controversial cartoonists.Trade Review"Trudeau's notoriety is something to be celebrated. The controversy surrounding his strip has been a sign, perhaps, that he is actually effective at doing his job. The great satirists throughout history - Swift, Voltaire, Hogarth... - were given great license to challenge leaders and criticize the social order; and if they did not annoy political leaders or irk their audiences at times while using this license, then we would not place them in that pantheon of great cultural critics." -from the introduction"

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Book SynopsisThis interdisciplinary collection of eleven original essays focuses on the environmental impact of transportation, which is, as Tatiana Prorokova-Konrad and Brian C. Black note in their introduction, responsible for 26 percent of global energy use. Approaching mobility not solely as a material, logistical question but as a phenomenon mediated by culture, the book interrogates popular assumptions deeply entangled with energy choices. Rethinking transportation, the contributors argue, necessarily involves fundamental understandings of consumption, freedom, and self.The essays in Transportation and the Culture of Climate Change cover an eclectic range of subject matter, from the association of bicycles with childhood to the songs of Bruce Springsteen, but are united in a central conviction: "Transport is a considerable part of our culture that is as hard to transform as it is for us to stop using fossil fuels - but we do not have an alternative.Table of Contents Introduction: Carbonization as a Choice: Environmental Ethics, Mobility, and Energy Options Tatiana Prorokova-Konrad and Brian C. Black Part I: Mobility and the Environment 1. Using Heritage and Ecological Systems Thinking to Inform Resilient Automobility Design Barry L. Stiefel 2. Bikes for Children, Cars for Adults: Postwar American Transportation Culture and the Legacy of Moving Images James Longhurst 3. E-Scooters and the Urban Micromobility Revolution Matthew C. Swanson Part II: Car Cultures 4. ""Carbolization"": Cars, Carbon Emissions, and the Global Discipline of Automobility Gordon M. Sayre 5. Hydrocarbon Enslavement and Fantasies of Freedom Patrick D. Murphy 6. Suicide Machines: Bruce Springsteen, Ballard, and Broken Heroes on a Last Chance Power Drive David LaRocca 7. Remainders of the Fossil Regime: Automobility Regression in Three Post-Apocalyptic Novels Brent Ryan Bellamy Part III: Film, Energy, and Climate Change 8. Intermodal Aesthetics and the Otherwise of Cargo Megan Hayes and Jeff Diamanti 9. Nature Guarding ""Her Treasures"" in Oil Comedies: The Case of Local Hero and Fubar: Balls to the Wall Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann 10. Boom/Bust: Tragic Logistics and Accelerationist Comedy in Petroleum Transport C. Parker Krieg 11. Trafficking in Petronormativities: At the Intersections of Petrofeminism Petrocolonialism, and Petrocapitalism Sheena Wilson Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisThe Opioid Epidemic and US Culture brings a new set of perspectives to one of the most pressing contemporary topics in Appalachia and the nation as a whole. A project aimed both at challenging dehumanizing attitudes toward those caught in the opioid epidemic and at protesting the structural forces that have enabled it, this edited volume assembles a multidisciplinary community of scholars and practitioners to consider the ways that people have mobilized their creativity in response to the crisis. From the documentary The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia to the role of cough syrup in mumble rap, and from a queer Appalachian zine to protests against the Sackler family's art-world philanthropy, the essays here explore the intersections of expressive culture, addiction, and recovery.Written for an audience of people working on the front lines of the opioid crisis, the book is essential reading for social workers, addiction counselors, halfway house managers, and people with opioid use disorder. It will also appeal to the community of scholars interested in understanding how aesthetics shape our engagement with critical social issues, particularly in the fields of literary and film criticism, museum studies, and ethnomusicology.Table of Contents Introduction: The Opioid Crisis and Expressive Culture Travis D. Stimeling Part I. On the Outside Looking In: The Opioid Crisis from Without 1. ""Something Too Pure / Is Killing Us"": Opioid-Addiction Porn, Endurance, and the Neoliberal Appropriation of Resilience Jordan Lovejoy 2. ""Snort Pills on My Head"": The Visual Rhetoric of Addiction, Abjection, and White Trash in The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia Christopher Garland 3. The Pill: Aesthetics, Addiction, and Gender in Jennifer Weiner's All Fall Down Ashleigh Hardin 4. Prince, Tom Petty, and Pain: Projections of Authenticity in Popular Music Leigh H. Edwards 5. ""Maybe If I'd Stayed"": Appalachian Outmigration and Narratives of Loss in Nate May's Dust in the Bottomland Travis D. Stimeling Part II. If You Lived Here: Representing the Opioid Epidemic from Within 6. Pretty Lil Azzie Crystal Good 7. The Way the World Is: From Maggie Boylan Michael Henson 8. Finding Maggie Boylan Michael Henson 9. You Talkin' about Me? Turning the Blood of Appalachia's Opioid Epidemic into Ink Jacqueline Yahn 10. Remediating the Opioid Crisis in Museums Ethan Sharp 11. A Hole Is Not a Void: Extraction, Addiction, and Aesthetics Jonas N. T. Becker 12. Narrative Engagement with the Opioid Epidemic: From Personal Story to Personal Reflection Amanda M. Caleb and Susan McDonald 13. Recovering from Addiction in Sobriety: Narrating Disability/Mental Illness through the Medium of Comic Art Tatiana Prorokova-Konrad 14. ""Hey, Let's Have a Very Good Time"": The Opioid Aesthetics of Post-Verbal Rap Austin T. Richey Part III. New Day Dawning: Recovery, Sobriety, and Post-Opioid Futures 15. Queer Addiction and Queer Harm Reduction in Appalachia Gina Mamone 16. Healing Open Wounds Chelsea Jack 17. Pain Is One Dance Partner: Move with It Anne Lloyd Willett 18. Images of Opioid Addiction, Recovery, and Privilege in Mainstream Hip Hop Paige Zalman 19. The Voices of Hope A Recovery Community Choir: Redefining Self, Community, and Success Natalie Shaffer Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisCelebrities can come from many different realms: film, music, politics, sports. But what do all these major celebrities have in common? What elevates them to the status of household names while their equally talented peers remain in relative obscurity? Is it just a question of charisma, or does fame depend more on the collective fantasies of fans than the actual accomplishments of celebrities? In search of answers, cultural historian Eric Burns delves deep into the biographies of some of the most famous figures in American history, from Benjamin Franklin to Fanny Kemble, Elvis Presley to Gene Tierney, and Michael Jordan to Oprah Winfrey. Through these case studies, he considers the evolution of celebrity throughout the ages. More controversially, he questions the very status of fame in the twenty-first century, an era in which thousands of minor celebrities have seen their fifteen minutes in the spotlight. The Politics of Fame is a provocative and entertaining look at the lives and afterlives of America’s most beloved celebrities as well as the mad devotion they inspired. It raises important questions about what celebrity worship reveals about the worshippers—and about the state of the nation itselfTrade Review"Eric Burns's book provides a fascinating chronology of the politics of fame from the American founder fathers to the present day. The volume includes many interesting anecdotes upon this important topic." -- Mark Wheeler * London Metropolitan University and author of Celebrity Politics *In this incendiary cultural commentary on the place of fame in politics, Burns’ links what he sees as a decline in educational standards with the “false intimacy” of celebrity. He describes a political environment in which the political classes pander to the “wisdom” of an electorate starved of genuine intelligence. Burns’ book will inspire and infuriate in equal measure, but as a warning against the influence of fame contemporary, it is unmissable. -- Michael Higgins * Senior Lecturer, Director of MLitt in Media and Communication at the University of Strathclyd *Table of ContentsContents Epigraph A Note to Readers Prologue PART ONE Chapter One: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Fame Chapter Two: The Celebrity With A Cause Chapter Three: The Cultural Commodity Chapter Four: At Long Last, Class Chapter Five: Circulation Wars Chapter Six: The Press and the Immigrants The Chapter Seven: The Deviancy of Adulation Part TWO Chapter One: The Decreasing Literacy Rate Chapter Two: The Leveling Forces of Democracy Chapter Three: The Declining Importance of Faith Chapter Four: The Acceleration of Haste Chapter Five: The False Intimacy of the Media Epilogue Bibliography Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThe twenty-first century is already riddled with protests demanding social justice, and in every instance, young people are leading the charge. But in addition to protesters who take to the streets with handmade placards are young adults who engage in less obvious change-making tactics. In Speaking Truths, sociologist Valerie Chepp goes behind-the-scenes to uncover how spoken word poetry—and young people’s participation in it—contributes to a broader understanding of contemporary social justice activism, including this generation’s attention to the political importance of identity, well-being, and love. Drawing upon detailed observations and in-depth interviews, Chepp tells the story of a diverse group of young adults from Washington, D.C. who use spoken word to create a more just and equitable world. Outlining the contours of this approach, she interrogates spoken word activism’s emphasis on personal storytelling and “truth,” the strategic uses of aesthetics and emotions to politically engage across difference, and the significance of healing in sustainable movements for change. Weaving together their poetry and personally told stories, Chepp shows how poets tap into the beautiful, emotional, personal, and therapeutic features of spoken word to empathically connect with others, advance intersectional and systemic analyses of inequality, and make social justice messages relatable across a diverse public. By creating allies and forging connections based on friendship, professional commitments, lived experiences, emotions, artistic kinship, and political views, this activist approach is highly integrated into the everyday lives of its practitioners, online and face-to-face. Chepp argues that spoken word activism is a product of, and a call to action against, the neoliberal era in which poets have come of age, characterized by widening structural inequalities and increasing economic and social vulnerability. She illustrates how this deeply personal and intimate activist approach borrows from, builds upon, and diverges from previous social movement paradigms. Spotlighting the complexity and mutual influence of modern-day activism and the world in which it unfolds, Speaking Truths contributes to our understanding of contemporary social change-making and how neoliberalism has shaped this political generation’s experiences with social injustice.Trade Review"This beautifully written work deftly interweaves vignettes and poems to illustrate the culture of spoken word in meticulous detail." -- Jerusha O. Conner * author of The New Student Activists: The Rise of Neoactivism on College and University Campuses. *"In this timely and deeply incisive investigation of poet-activists in Washington, D.C., Chepp illuminates the capacity of spoken word to transcend single-axis identity politics and create visionary, intersectional coalitions." -- Patrick Ryan Grzanka * Editor of Intersectionality: Foundations and Frontiers *"Valerie Chepp’s Speaking Truths beautifully adds to the growing literature on poetry slams, spoken word, and their surrounding communities. By exploring young poets as social justice activists, Chepp reminds us of the arts' undying capacity to imagine and build new, just, and more equitable worlds. Speaking Truths is a necessary offering in the burgeoning sub field of slam and spoken word studies." -- Javon Johnson * author of Killing Poetry: Blackness and the Making of Slam and Spoken Word Communities *New Books Network: New Books in Popular Culture interview with Valerie Chepp * New Books Network: New Books in Popular Culture *"This beautifully written work deftly interweaves vignettes and poems to illustrate the culture of spoken word in meticulous detail." -- Jerusha O. Conner * author of The New Student Activists: The Rise of Neoactivism on College and University Campuses. *"In this timely and deeply incisive investigation of poet-activists in Washington, D.C., Chepp illuminates the capacity of spoken word to transcend single-axis identity politics and create visionary, intersectional coalitions." -- Patrick Ryan Grzanka * Editor of Intersectionality: Foundations and Frontiers *"Valerie Chepp’s Speaking Truths beautifully adds to the growing literature on poetry slams, spoken word, and their surrounding communities. By exploring young poets as social justice activists, Chepp reminds us of the arts' undying capacity to imagine and build new, just, and more equitable worlds. Speaking Truths is a necessary offering in the burgeoning sub field of slam and spoken word studies." -- Javon Johnson * author of Killing Poetry: Blackness and the Making of Slam and Spoken Word Communities *New Books Network: New Books in Popular Culture interview with Valerie Chepp * New Books Network: New Books in Popular Culture *"Speaking Truths provides a nuanced examination of the inner workings of spoken word activism, draws clear connections to a diverse body of sociological theory, and perhaps most importantly, firmly situates creative activism as a meaningful form of social justice work." -- Julie Gouweloos * Mobilization *Table of ContentsList of Tables Preface 1 Spoken Word Activism: Young Adults and Social Justice in the Age of Neoliberalism 2 Spinning Stories from Words Got Spit: Researching a Verbal Arts Community 3 Speaking Truths: Experiential Knowledge, Embodied Testimony, and Activist Storytelling 4 Creative Politics: Art, Justice, and Empathic Possibilities 5 Healing Justice: The Politics of Healthy Selves and Communities 6 #Activism and Beyond: Sustainability and Social Change in a Digital World 104 7 Intersectionality as Activist Strategy: Toward a New Identity Politics Appendix A: Doing Ethnographic Research in the Era of Social Media Appendix B: Core Sample by Venue Participation Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisRace and Cultural Practice in Popular Culture is an innovative work that freshly approaches the concept of race as a social factor made concrete in popular forms, such as film, television, and music. The essays collectively push past the reaffirmation of static conceptions of identity, authenticity, or conventional interpretations of stereotypes and bridge the intertextual gap between theories of community enactment and cultural representation. The book also draws together and melds otherwise isolated academic theories and methodologies in order to focus on race as an ideological reality and a process that continues to impact lives despite allegations that we live in a post-racial America. The collection is separated into three parts: Visualizing Race (Representational Media), Sounding Race (Soundscape), and Racialization in Place (Theory), each of which considers visual, audio, and geographic sites of racial representations respectively. Trade Review"Domino Perez and Rachel González-Martin have assembled a dynamic and eclectic collection that urges us to see, hear, and place race and racialized representations beyond stereotypical, silenced, and sedentary subjectivities. Engaging the contemporary social politics of race in television, film, music, and other performative sites, Race and Cultural Practice in Popular Culture deftly reframes, remixes, and resituates discourse on folklore and pop culture to usher in nuanced understandings and challenging conversations befitting who we are and where we may be going as local and global creators, consumers, and critics of the popular." -- Dustin Tahmahkera * author of Tribal Television: Viewing Native People in Sitcoms *"The ugly eruptions of racism and resurgent white supremacy in this 'post-racial' time are grim reminders of just how vital it is that we understand and engage the complex and contested logics of race in the United States and other settler states. This volume is an impressive and indeed essential tool for that purpose. The editors have brought together a community of thoughtful, provocative thinkers in conversation at the crossroads of folklore, popular culture, critical theory, political action, and lived experience. Collectively and individually the contributors take race and (self-) representation seriously, in often unexpected, sometimes playful, occasionally fierce, but always compelling ways; they challenge readers to reconsider our own biases and boundaries around knowledge and cultural production, and extend the horizon of what is and can be possible in our critical conversations and embodied understandings. Race and Cultural Practice in Popular Culture offers vital, nourishing intellectual sustenance in these cruel and incurious times." -- Daniel Heath Justice * author of Why Indigenous Literatures Matter *Table of ContentsContents List of Illustrations “Assembling an Intersectional Pop Cultura Analytical Lens: A Foreword” Introduction: Re-imagining Critical Approaches to Folklore and Popular Culture Domino Renee Perez and Rachel González-Martin Part I: Visualizing Race “A Thousand ‘Lines of Flight’: Collective Individuation and Racial Identity in Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black and Sense8” Ruth Y. Hsu “Performing Cherokee Masculinity in The Doe Boy” Channette Romero “Truth, Justice, and the Mexican Way: Lucha Libre, Film, and Nationalism in Mexico” James Wilkey “Native American Irony: Survivance and the Subversion of Ethnography” Gerald Vizenor Part II: Sounding Race “(Re)imagining Indigenous Popular Culture” Mintzi Auanda Martínez-Rivera “My Tongue is Divided into Two” Olivia Cadaval “Performing Nation Diva Style in Lila Downs and Astrid Hadad’s La Tequilera” K. Angelique Dwyer “(Dis)identifying with Shakira’s ‘Global Body’: A Path Towards Rhythmic Affiliations Beyond the Dichotomous Nation/Diaspora” Daniela Gutiérrez López “Voicing the Occult in Chicana/o Culture and Hybridity: Prayers and the Cholo-Goth Aesthetic” José G. Anguiano Part III: Racialization in Place “Ugly Brown Bodies: Queering Desire in Machete” Nicole Guidotti-Hernández “Bitch, how’d you make it this far?”: Strategic Enactments of White Femininity in The Walking Dead” Jaime Guzmán and Raisa Alvarado Uchima “Bridge and Tunnel: Transcultural Border Crossings in The Bridge and Sicario” Marcel Brousseau “Red Land, White Power, Blue Sky: Settler Colonialism and Indigeneity in Breaking Bad” James H. Cox Acknowledgments Notes on Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisRace and Cultural Practice in Popular Culture is an innovative work that freshly approaches the concept of race as a social factor made concrete in popular forms, such as film, television, and music. The essays collectively push past the reaffirmation of static conceptions of identity, authenticity, or conventional interpretations of stereotypes and bridge the intertextual gap between theories of community enactment and cultural representation. The book also draws together and melds otherwise isolated academic theories and methodologies in order to focus on race as an ideological reality and a process that continues to impact lives despite allegations that we live in a post-racial America. The collection is separated into three parts: Visualizing Race (Representational Media), Sounding Race (Soundscape), and Racialization in Place (Theory), each of which considers visual, audio, and geographic sites of racial representations respectively. Trade Review"Domino Perez and Rachel González-Martin have assembled a dynamic and eclectic collection that urges us to see, hear, and place race and racialized representations beyond stereotypical, silenced, and sedentary subjectivities. Engaging the contemporary social politics of race in television, film, music, and other performative sites, Race and Cultural Practice in Popular Culture deftly reframes, remixes, and resituates discourse on folklore and pop culture to usher in nuanced understandings and challenging conversations befitting who we are and where we may be going as local and global creators, consumers, and critics of the popular." -- Dustin Tahmahkera * author of Tribal Television: Viewing Native People in Sitcoms *"The ugly eruptions of racism and resurgent white supremacy in this 'post-racial' time are grim reminders of just how vital it is that we understand and engage the complex and contested logics of race in the United States and other settler states. This volume is an impressive and indeed essential tool for that purpose. The editors have brought together a community of thoughtful, provocative thinkers in conversation at the crossroads of folklore, popular culture, critical theory, political action, and lived experience. Collectively and individually the contributors take race and (self-) representation seriously, in often unexpected, sometimes playful, occasionally fierce, but always compelling ways; they challenge readers to reconsider our own biases and boundaries around knowledge and cultural production, and extend the horizon of what is and can be possible in our critical conversations and embodied understandings. Race and Cultural Practice in Popular Culture offers vital, nourishing intellectual sustenance in these cruel and incurious times." -- Daniel Heath Justice * author of Why Indigenous Literatures Matter *Table of ContentsContents List of Illustrations “Assembling an Intersectional Pop Cultura Analytical Lens: A Foreword” Introduction: Re-imagining Critical Approaches to Folklore and Popular Culture Domino Renee Perez and Rachel González-Martin Part I: Visualizing Race “A Thousand ‘Lines of Flight’: Collective Individuation and Racial Identity in Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black and Sense8” Ruth Y. Hsu “Performing Cherokee Masculinity in The Doe Boy” Channette Romero “Truth, Justice, and the Mexican Way: Lucha Libre, Film, and Nationalism in Mexico” James Wilkey “Native American Irony: Survivance and the Subversion of Ethnography” Gerald Vizenor Part II: Sounding Race “(Re)imagining Indigenous Popular Culture” Mintzi Auanda Martínez-Rivera “My Tongue is Divided into Two” Olivia Cadaval “Performing Nation Diva Style in Lila Downs and Astrid Hadad’s La Tequilera” K. Angelique Dwyer “(Dis)identifying with Shakira’s ‘Global Body’: A Path Towards Rhythmic Affiliations Beyond the Dichotomous Nation/Diaspora” Daniela Gutiérrez López “Voicing the Occult in Chicana/o Culture and Hybridity: Prayers and the Cholo-Goth Aesthetic” José G. Anguiano Part III: Racialization in Place “Ugly Brown Bodies: Queering Desire in Machete” Nicole Guidotti-Hernández “Bitch, how’d you make it this far?”: Strategic Enactments of White Femininity in The Walking Dead” Jaime Guzmán and Raisa Alvarado Uchima “Bridge and Tunnel: Transcultural Border Crossings in The Bridge and Sicario” Marcel Brousseau “Red Land, White Power, Blue Sky: Settler Colonialism and Indigeneity in Breaking Bad” James H. Cox Acknowledgments Notes on Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisHow did Americans come to believe that working at home is feasible, productive, and desirable? Easy Living examines how the idea of working within the home was constructed and disseminated in popular culture and mass media during the twentieth century. Through the analysis of national magazines and newspapers, television and film, and marketing and advertising materials from the housing, telecommunications, and office technology industries, Easy Living traces changing concepts about what it meant to work in the home. These ideas reflected larger social, political-economic, and technological trends of the times. Elizabeth A. Patton reveals that the notion of the home as a space that exists solely in the private sphere is a myth, as the social meaning of the home and its market value in relation to the public sphere are intricately linked.Trade Review“This easy to read, fun, and unique book approaches discourses on work/life in a way that no one has before.” -- Elizabeth Fish Hatfield * editor of Communication and the Work-Life Balancing Act *"Patton draws on an impressive array of archival sources to demonstrate how communication technologies and architectural design have constructed ideals about working at home. Her nuanced historical analysis importantly reveals that our contemporary struggles over work/life balance are not new." -- Amy Corbin * author of Cinematic Geographies and Multicultural Spectatorship in America *"Remote Work Won’t Save Us: The home office was never designed to give workers more freedom. The pandemic has only made it worse," by Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein https://newrepublic.com/article/158704/remote-work-wont-save-us-home-office-elizabeth-patton-review * The New Republic *"Easy Living: The Rise of the Home Office [is] a piece of engaging and prescient scholarship which, especially at the present moment, makes a valuable contribution to now central and ongoing global debates about what working from home has meant, means now, and might mean in the future." * Visual Studies *"Easy Living sheds necessary light on the practice of working from home. It is also (and seemingly unintentionally) timely: as societies negotiate an exit from the pandemic emergency and attempt to move towards some form of the new normal, choices about whether to continue working from home or to return to the office are being made on both corporate and individual levels." * LSE Review of Books *"Easy Living offers a strong critique of the contemporary myth of work-life balance, a myth that 'keeps workers from recognizing the exploitation of their labor and the dependence on service workers to support work-life balance'....Although written before the onslaught of Covid-19, Easy Living exposes the long-standing discourses of gender, race, and class undergirding American experiences of work and home, discourses laden with power and inequality that the pandemic has exposed." * Television & New Media *Table of ContentsContents Introduction Part I: Where Does Work Belong?: Toward a New Conception of Home 1 The Home and Its Function 2 Industry Stay Out 3 The Telephone and Better Living 4 Portable Typewriters for Home Use Part II: Consuming Office Practices and Technology in the Postwar Suburban Middle-Class Home 5 The Quest for Easy Livin’ in the Suburban Home 6 The Big Business of Homemaking 7 Junior-sized Offices 8 An Office Away from the Office Part III: The Birth of the Live-Work Lifestyle 9 Real Men Live in the City 10 Pseudo-Bohemian Bacherlorettes 11 Work Where You Live Part IV: Neoliberal Domestic Workspaces 12 The Electronic Cottage 13 Adaptable Parents, Flexible Jobs and Adaptive Homes 14 Urban Professional Lifestyles Acknowledgments Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Best Book Award in Comics History from the Grand Comics Database Honorable Mention, 2019-2020 Research Society for American Periodicals Book Prize The term “graphic novel” was first coined in 1964, but it wouldn’t be broadly used until the 1980s, when graphic novels such as Watchmen and Maus achieved commercial success and critical acclaim. What happened in the intervening years, after the graphic novel was conceptualized yet before it was widely recognized? Dreaming the Graphic Novel examines how notions of the graphic novel began to coalesce in the 1970s, a time of great change for American comics, with declining sales of mainstream periodicals, the arrival of specialty comics stores, and (at least initially) a thriving underground comix scene. Surveying the eclectic array of long comics narratives that emerged from this fertile period, Paul Williams investigates many texts that have fallen out of graphic novel history. As he demonstrates, the question of what makes a text a ‘graphic novel’ was the subject of fierce debate among fans, creators, and publishers, inspiring arguments about the literariness of comics that are still taking place among scholars today. Unearthing a treasure trove of fanzines, adverts, and unpublished letters, Dreaming the Graphic Novel gives readers an exciting inside look at a pivotal moment in the art form’s development. Trade Review"A thoughtful and engaging exploration of the complex disagreements and debates over the term, form and temporality of the 'graphic novel.'" -- Mel Gibson * editor of Superheroes and Identities *"The 1970s are one of the most under-appreciated periods in the history of comic books. As sales collapsed, comic book publishers grasped at any innovation that offered a potential road forward. Paul Williams’s masterful study focuses on this chaotic period as it traces the complex ways that catastrophic change spurred a fundamental reconsideration of what comic books were and could be. Drawing on a vast array of historical documents, Williams shows how the graphic novel became the cultural format of our time." -- Bart Beaty * author of The Greatest Comic Book of All Time *"Accessible and detailed, Williams’s study expands on previous scholarship on the evolution of comics into graphic narratives. Highly recommended." * Choice *"As Williams’ detailed scholarship shows, efforts by major creators like Corben, Will Eisner, and Art Spiegelman secured academic and cultural legitimacy for the graphic novel while ensuring, through their newly integrative approach, a differential art recognized for its aesthetic seriousness yet independent of institutional strictures." * Technical Communication Journal *"There is much to recommend in Williams’ examples of, and conversation around, long-form comics of the period provided throughout the book....An excellent corrective to the scatter-shot references one usually encounters [that] succeeds in correcting some long-standing misconceptions about the development of the graphic novel." * Inks * Review of Dreaming the Graphic Novel in Medienwissenschaft 01/2021 * Medienwissenschaft *"Dreaming the Graphic Novel is a methodological wonder for scholars interested in American popular culture, digital humanities, text mining, and the history of comics and graphic novels. His mixed methodological approach allows him to successfully participate in 'the ongoing recovery of comics studies’ prehistory' as well as establish 'a new way of doing graphic novel history.' Williams’ book should be a required reading...for courses offering an introduction to graphic novels in the U.S. Comics fans, comics scholars, and those interested in the history of graphic novel might also find this a stimulating read." * ImageTexT *"Dreaming the Graphic Novel undertakes the very important task of deepening our understanding of the origins of book format comics and giving a historical context to the anxieties around comics and graphic novels in the 2000s." * European Journal of American Culture *Table of ContentsContents Preface Abbreviations Introduction 1) The Death of the Comic Book 2) Eastern Promise 3) Making Novels 4) The ‘Graphic Novel’ Triumphant 5) Putting the ‘Novel’ into ‘Graphic Novel’ 6) Comics as Literature? Conclusion Appendix Acknowledgments Bibliography

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Book SynopsisBetween 1971 and 1979, All in the Family was more than just a wildly popular television sitcom that routinely drew 50 million viewers weekly. It was also a touchstone of American life, so much so that the living room chairs of the two main characters have spent the last 40 years on display at the Smithsonian. How did a show this controversial and boundary-breaking manage to become so widely beloved?Those Were the Days is the first full-length study of this remarkable television program. Created by Norman Lear and produced by Bud Yorkin, All in the Family dared to address such taboo topics as rape, abortion, menopause, homosexuality, and racial prejudice in a way that no other sitcom had before. Through a close analysis of the sitcom’s four main characters—boorish bigot Archie Bunker, his devoted wife Edith, their feminist daughter Gloria, and her outspoken liberal husband Mike—Jim Cullen demonstrates how All in the Family was able to bridge the generation gap and appeal to a broad spectrum of American viewers in an age when a network broadcast model of television created a shared national culture. Locating All in the Family within the larger history of American television, this book shows how it transformed the medium, not only spawning spinoffs like Maude and The Jeffersons, but also helping to inspire programs like Roseanne, Married... with Children, and The Simpsons. And it raises the question: could a show this edgy ever air on broadcast television today?Trade Review"Little did I know about the world Archie Bunker and All in the Family were born into until I read Jim Cullen’s informed and perceptive Those Were the Days: Why All In The Family Still Matters." -- Norman Lear"Jim Cullen's beguiling scholarship offers a nimble treatment of what was arguably American television's most influential scripted series, made in the waning days of the now bygone mass audience." -- Robert Thompson * Founding Director, Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture, Syracuse University *"'All in the Family' pushed the envelope on race and gender. Has America regressed since then?" by Jim Cullen * USA Today *"A very accessible and highly readable study that situates All in the Family aptly in its historical moment. It illuminates why the show became a landmark and what makes it so special to this day." -- Christina von Hodenberg * author of Television's Moment: Sitcom Audiences and the Sixties Cultural Revolution *"From how each character evolved to the family's resemblance to real-life changes and developing social awareness, Those Were the Days provides a solid study that will serve as discussion material for any media studies or American social history classroom." * Donovan's Literary Services *"Those were the days: As ‘All in the Family’ turns 50, a look at why it succeeded" by Jim Cullen * New York Daily News *"Norman Lear deserves his Golden Globe award — does America deserve him?" by Benjamin Lear * The Foreward *Mary Baker Eddy Library podcast: Jean Stapleton and the spiritual dimensions of “All in the Family” episode * Seekers and Scholars podcast *Table of ContentsContents Introduction: Broad(cast) Humor 1 Situation Comedy, Situation Tragedy: The Transitional World of All in the Family 2 The Revolution, Televised: Origins of the Family 3 Fuzzy Reception: Meeting the Bunkers 4 Producing Comedy: Making All in the Family 5 The Character of Home: Chez Bunker 6 Not Bad for a Bigot: The Making of Archie Bunker 7 A Really Great Housewife: The Character of Edith Baines Bunker 8 Left In: The Liberal Arts of Michael Stivic 9 “Little Girl” to Mother: The Working-Class Feminism of Gloria Bunker Stivic 10 Family Resemblance: The Rise and Fall of the Lear Television Empire Conclusion: Just Like Us Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisThe superheroes from DC and Marvel comics are some of the most iconic characters in popular culture today. But how do these figures idealize certain gender roles, body types, sexualities, and racial identities at the expense of others? Hot Pants and Spandex Suits offers a far-reaching look at how masculinity and femininity have been represented in American superhero comics, from the Golden and Silver Ages to the Modern Age. Scholar Esther De Dauw contrasts the bulletproof and musclebound phallic bodies of classic male heroes like Superman, Captain America, and Iron Man with the figures of female counterparts like Wonder Woman and Supergirl, who are drawn as superhumanly flexible and plastic. It also examines the genre’s ambivalent treatment of LGBTQ representation, from the presentation of gay male heroes Wiccan and Hulkling as a model minority couple to the troubling association of Batwoman’s lesbianism with monstrosity. Finally, it explores the intersection between gender and race through case studies of heroes like Luke Cage, Storm, and Ms. Marvel. Hot Pants and Spandex Suits is a fascinating and thought-provoking consideration of what superhero comics teach us about identity, embodiment, and sexuality.Trade Review“In Hot Pants and Spandex Suits: Gender and Race in American Superhero Comics, Esther De Dauw has addressed the complexities of identity politics reflected in superhero comics from their earliest appearance eighty years ago. The superhero, a metaphor for the concerns of our culture, presents an apt topic for our understanding of the intersections of gender, race and national identity. The eighty-year span of the book offers us a mirror to our changing perceptions of identity politics and it is of interest to anyone interested in cultural, historical and media studies.” -- Joan Ormrod * author of Wonder Woman, the Female Body and Popular Culture *"Dr. Esther De Dauw asks us to reconsider the generic construct of the superhero and to ask not only who they serve, but how. More importantly, she shows how their high-minded words often obscure less lofty silences and thus also asks us who they be might harming."— Martin Lund, Malmö University, author of Re-Constructing the Man of Steel “In Hot Pants and Spandex Suits: Gender and Race in American Superhero Comics, Esther De Dauw has addressed the complexities of identity politics reflected in superhero comics from their earliest appearance eighty years ago. The superhero, a metaphor for the concerns of our culture, presents an apt topic for our understanding of the intersections of gender, race and national identity. The eighty-year span of the book offers us a mirror to our changing perceptions of identity politics and it is of interest to anyone interested in cultural, historical and media studies.”— Joan Ormrod, author of Wonder Woman, the Female Body and Popular Culture "Esther De Dauw’s book Hot Pants and Spandex Suits is well versed in gender and sexuality studies."— Inks"Dr. Esther De Dauw asks us to reconsider the generic construct of the superhero and to ask not only who they serve, but how. More importantly, she shows how their high-minded words often obscure less lofty silences and thus also asks us who they be might harming." -- Martin Lund * Malmö University, author of Re-Constructing the Man of Steel *"Esther De Dauw’s book Hot Pants and Spandex Suits is well versed in gender and sexuality studies." * Inks *Table of ContentsContents Introduction Chapter 1: White Superheroes and Masculinity Chapter 2: The White Female Body Chapter 3: Gay Characters and Social Progress Chapter 4: Legacy, Community and the Superhero of Color Conclusion: The Next Steps Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe superheroes from DC and Marvel comics are some of the most iconic characters in popular culture today. But how do these figures idealize certain gender roles, body types, sexualities, and racial identities at the expense of others? Hot Pants and Spandex Suits offers a far-reaching look at how masculinity and femininity have been represented in American superhero comics, from the Golden and Silver Ages to the Modern Age. Scholar Esther De Dauw contrasts the bulletproof and musclebound phallic bodies of classic male heroes like Superman, Captain America, and Iron Man with the figures of female counterparts like Wonder Woman and Supergirl, who are drawn as superhumanly flexible and plastic. It also examines the genre’s ambivalent treatment of LGBTQ representation, from the presentation of gay male heroes Wiccan and Hulkling as a model minority couple to the troubling association of Batwoman’s lesbianism with monstrosity. Finally, it explores the intersection between gender and race through case studies of heroes like Luke Cage, Storm, and Ms. Marvel. Hot Pants and Spandex Suits is a fascinating and thought-provoking consideration of what superhero comics teach us about identity, embodiment, and sexuality.Trade Review“In Hot Pants and Spandex Suits: Gender and Race in American Superhero Comics, Esther De Dauw has addressed the complexities of identity politics reflected in superhero comics from their earliest appearance eighty years ago. The superhero, a metaphor for the concerns of our culture, presents an apt topic for our understanding of the intersections of gender, race and national identity. The eighty-year span of the book offers us a mirror to our changing perceptions of identity politics and it is of interest to anyone interested in cultural, historical and media studies.” -- Joan Ormrod * author of Wonder Woman, the Female Body and Popular Culture *"Dr. Esther De Dauw asks us to reconsider the generic construct of the superhero and to ask not only who they serve, but how. More importantly, she shows how their high-minded words often obscure less lofty silences and thus also asks us who they be might harming."— Martin Lund, Malmö University, author of Re-Constructing the Man of Steel “In Hot Pants and Spandex Suits: Gender and Race in American Superhero Comics, Esther De Dauw has addressed the complexities of identity politics reflected in superhero comics from their earliest appearance eighty years ago. The superhero, a metaphor for the concerns of our culture, presents an apt topic for our understanding of the intersections of gender, race and national identity. The eighty-year span of the book offers us a mirror to our changing perceptions of identity politics and it is of interest to anyone interested in cultural, historical and media studies.”— Joan Ormrod, author of Wonder Woman, the Female Body and Popular Culture "Esther De Dauw’s book Hot Pants and Spandex Suits is well versed in gender and sexuality studies."— Inks"Dr. Esther De Dauw asks us to reconsider the generic construct of the superhero and to ask not only who they serve, but how. More importantly, she shows how their high-minded words often obscure less lofty silences and thus also asks us who they be might harming." -- Martin Lund * Malmö University, author of Re-Constructing the Man of Steel *"Esther De Dauw’s book Hot Pants and Spandex Suits is well versed in gender and sexuality studies." * Inks *Table of ContentsContents Introduction Chapter 1: White Superheroes and Masculinity Chapter 2: The White Female Body Chapter 3: Gay Characters and Social Progress Chapter 4: Legacy, Community and the Superhero of Color Conclusion: The Next Steps Bibliography Index

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